Columbia ollniticm'tp 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
 Bequest of 
 
 Frederic Bancroft 
 
 1860-1945 
 
fuejii -Z, /'?o S'. 
 
 -^Xi7 ^ f^ 
 
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 I 8 I 3—1 89 3 
 
 OF 
 
 REV. CHARLES E. BROWN 
 
 WITH SKETCHES OF HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN 
 AND 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 ^ 
 
 REV. PHILLIP 
 
 PERRY 
 
 BROWN 
 
 
 1790 
 
 — 1862 
 
 
 WITH 
 
 SKETCHES 
 
 OF HIS CHILDREN 
 
 
 AND 
 
 
 THE 
 
 FAMILY RECO RD 
 
 
 17 67- 
 
 — 1907 
 
 ¥. 
 
r' 
 
 ^' 
 
 / 
 
IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF MY WIFE 
 
 FRANCES LYON BROWN 
 
 VMHO for nearly fifty years shared with me 
 the labor, trials and privations of pioneer 
 missionary life; whose cheery presence made 
 the humble log cabin on the western frontier 
 the happiest of homes, and whose sunny, hope- 
 ful disposition found for every cloud a silver 
 lining-, these recollections are affectionately in- 
 scribed. 
 
 (9G) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 Birth. Earl3' Life. Education. Ordination to the Min- 
 istry, and marriage. 
 
 Chaiter II. 
 Appointment as a Missionarj', and the journey, New 
 York to Iowa, in 1842. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Pioneer life on the Western Frontier. The log- cabin 
 home near Maquoketa. Rafting on the Maquoketa river, 
 and a cross country trip to Iowa City. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Frontier meeting places. A primitive journey to Dav- 
 enport in a road cart. The Davenport Association and the 
 Churches composing it. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Removal to Davenport in fall of 1842. Revival meetings 
 at Rock Island. Sketch of Judge John F. Dillon. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Location at LeClaire. An eventful trip to Mt. Pleasant. 
 Indians and prairie fires. Buffalo Bill. The brick house 
 on the prairie of Scott county. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Relocation at Maquoketa in fall of 1847. The home there 
 and the Maquoketa Academy. Failing health. 
 
 Chapter VIII, 
 Death by drowning of oldest son, and of Nelson Walker, 
 a nephew. The return to New York in May, 1851. Hol- 
 land Patent, Russia, Norwa}'. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 Fenner, Madison county. Gaines and Murray, Orleans 
 
count}', and the return to Iowa in July, 1857. Looking up 
 a location in northern Iowa, and settling- at Vernon 
 Springs in September. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Early life at Vernon. Organization of the Church and 
 sketches of neighbors. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 
 The war of the Rebellion. Raid of Sioux Indians in fall 
 of 1862. McGregor Western Railway. Removal to 
 Thompson, Carroll county, Illinois. Appointment and 
 service as Chaplain in the army. 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 Location at Lime Springs, Howard county, in 1870. 
 Death by accident of son George L. Brown, September 1, 
 1871. Elected to State Legislature. An argument for 
 reform of jury system. 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 
 Death of Mrs. Brown at Lime Springs, June 12, 1887. 
 Breaking up of the home and life with sons. Death at 
 Ottumwa, July 23, 1901. Sketches of wife and children. 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 Address at LeClaire, July 4, 1845. 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 Temperance address at Cresco, January 3, 1875. 
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 Historical address at Clinton, Iowa, September 22, 1892. 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 Extract from Autobiography of Rev. Phillip Perry 
 Brown, with sketches of his children. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 Family records. 
 
LIST OF ILIA'S TR A TIONS, 
 
 Rev. atid Mrs. Charles E. Brown Frontispiece 
 
 Baptist Parsonafjfo, Norway, Herkimer \ 
 
 County, New York ' '. Following 
 
 I Page 10 
 
 Baptist Church, Norway I 
 
 Baptist Church, Russia, New York 54 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. Charles E. Brown and 
 
 children, George and Will, July, 1857 60 
 
 Iowa River at L<ime Springs, Iowa 1 
 
 Iowa River on C. C. Hewitt's farm near \ 
 
 lyime Springs J 
 
 Pasture on farm pre-empted by C. C. 1 
 
 Hewitt in 1S55 "' "2 
 
 Scene on C. C. Hewitt farm j 
 
 FIVE GENERATIONS 
 
 Esq. M M. Marsh ) 
 
 Mrs. C. C. Hewitt. Mrs. W. C. Brown. . . ! 74 
 
 Mrs. Frank E. Pierce ] 
 
 Master William Brown Pierce J 
 
 The old Home; Stone house built at Ver- 1 
 
 non Springs in 1858 )- 
 
 School House and old Home, Vernon j 
 
 80 
 
 School house at Vernon Springs 86 
 
 I 
 
Home of Father Brown in Ottumwa, 1 Following- 
 
 Iowa, where he died 
 
 I^ast home in Lime Springs, of Father j 
 
 and Mother Brown 
 
 Home of C. C. Hewitt, in Lime Springs, !' 
 
 where W. C. Brown and Ella Hewitt I 
 
 were married in June, 1874 ' 
 
 Remodeled Home in Lime Springs, of 
 
 Father and Mother Brown 1 
 
 Page 
 
 88 
 
 Hill's Mill on Iowa River near Lime 
 Springs 
 
 Monument on Family lot in Cemetery at 
 Lime Springs, Iowa 
 
 Family burial lot of Stephen W. Brown 
 at Little Falls, Herkimer County, New 
 York 
 
 96 
 
 102 
 
 104 
 
 FAMILY PORTRAITS 
 
 Rev. George W. Fall 
 
 Miss Adeline P. Fall, August, 1866 
 
 Mrs. Charles P. Brown, 1871 
 
 Charles P. Brown, 1863 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Brown, 1892.... 
 
 and Edith, 1885 
 
 Louise, Frances, Edith and Ben, children 
 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Brown 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lester M. Linton 
 
 106 
 
 James D. Brown 
 
 Mrs. James D. Brown 
 
 George E Brown and wife.. 
 Miss Vinnie France* Brown 
 Frank Logan Brown 
 
 110 
 
William C. Brown 
 
 Mrs. William C. Brown 
 
 Miss Marg-aret Heddeiis Brown. 
 
 Margaret 
 
 Margaret and Bertha 
 
 Dr. Frank E. Pierce 
 
 Mrs. Frank EJ. Pierce 
 
 William Brown Pierce 
 
 Bertha 
 
 Dr. Kellogg Speed 
 
 Mrs. Kellogg Speed 
 
 Following 
 Page 
 
 120 
 
 Rev. Phillip Perry Brown 
 
 Betsy Dickey, Mrs. Phillip Perry Brown 
 
 Rev. William Brown 
 
 Phillip Perry Brown, Jr 
 
 A. J. Brown 
 
 Wilbur M . Brown 
 
 178 
 
REV. AND MRS. CHAS. E. BROWN 
 
Sa in t Jos eph , Mis s o it ri, 
 February 2p'd, iSgj, 
 
 At the request of my children, I zindertake 
 a7i Aiitobiog-raphy, and commence it on this, 
 my eig^htieth birthday. 
 
 Imperfectly kept diaries will furnish sojne 
 data, but recollections must coyne principally 
 from memory^ s store. 
 
- Chapter I. 
 
 I was born in Augusta, Oneida County, 
 New York, February 23, 1813. My father, 
 Phillip Perry Brown, was born m Bennington, 
 Vermont, September 17, 1790, and died in 
 Madison, Madison County, New York, Sep- 
 tember 23, 1876. 
 
 He was a Baptist minister and was for 
 more than fifty years a zealous, faithful and 
 successful worker in his calling — as pastor of 
 Baptist Churches in central New York. 
 
 His mother, Anna Perry Brown, was of 
 the family of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 
 of Revolutionary fame; though not closely re- 
 lated. 
 
 My mother, Betsy Dickey, was born in 
 Wethersfield, Vermont, October 23, 1788, and 
 died in Hamilton, New York, April 2nd, 1862. 
 
 Her father was a Scotch Irishman, who 
 came from Londonderry, North Ireland to 
 Londonderry, New Hampshire, before the 
 revolutionary war. She was an exemplary 
 Christian woman and a devoted, loving wife 
 and mother. • 
 
 I was the second of a family of nine chil- 
 dren, six sons and three daughters, of whom 
 
4 
 
 only three are now living*, myself, a brother 
 and sister. 
 
 Before my recollection my parents moved 
 from Aug-usta to Smithiield, in Madison 
 County. 
 
 This was a new and heavily timbered coun- 
 try, and here, amid the privations and hard- 
 ships of pioneer life with limited means, we 
 lived until my eig-hteenth year. 
 
 The maple forest furnished us with suo-ar 
 and syrup. Wheat flour was something of a 
 luxury. Wild game from the timber and trout 
 from the streams supplied meat for the table. 
 
 Spelling- schools, apple paring's, coasting, 
 and the usual g-ames of a pioneer farming- com- 
 munity were our youthful sports. 
 
 The family was healthy and the services 
 of the neighborhood doctor were very seldom 
 needed. 
 
 In the fall of 1829, my father became pastor 
 of the Baptist Church at Augusta. 
 
 During the summer and fall of 1831 I worked 
 for Danforth Armour on his farm, at the sum- 
 mit of what was known as the "Mile Hill" — 
 the grade beginning at Leland's Tavern, the 
 five chimney house. The Lelands' became in 
 time wealthy and well known keepers of 
 famous hotels. Near the top of the Mile Hill 
 the road forked, the main road running- south- 
 west and the other due west. 
 
The Armour farm la}^ along- the south side 
 of the west road, west of the Peterboro turn- 
 pike. The house, one and a half-story frame, 
 unpainted, contained three small rooms below 
 and a bed room and store room above. 
 
 The larg-e, old-fashioned chimney and fire 
 place was in one end with a ladder alongside 
 leading- to the room above. 
 
 The family consisted of the parents, two 
 little boys, Simeon and Watson in dresses, 
 and a little girl baby in the mother's arms. 
 The following- year a third boy was born, 
 who was named Phillip. 
 
 The home, though humble, was a very happy 
 one. 
 
 Danforth Armour's parents came from 
 New England to New York at an early day. 
 New York at that time was "out west." Many 
 years later Danforth returned to Connecticut 
 to find a helpmate — Miss Julia A. Brooks, 
 daughter of a well to do Yankee farmer. 
 
 I feel that the incidents above related are 
 worthy of special notice when I realize the 
 good influence exerted in the west by the 
 three sons of Danforth Armour during the 
 past twenty-five years. 
 
 Phillip D. Armour, Simeon B. Armour and 
 Allison W. Armour have honored the name 
 they bear, the place that gave them birth. 
 
6 
 
 and the sturdy New En<»-land stock from which 
 they spruno*. 
 
 I was paid thirty-two dollars in cash for my 
 four months* woriv on the Armour farm. 
 Within a week from the time I o;ot the money, 
 I met an acquaintance who knew of its receipt 
 and wanted to borrow just that amount. He 
 plead so earnestly and made such fair promises 
 to repay soon that I let him have it, and at 
 this time the amount is still due and unpaid, 
 principal and interest. 
 
 Late in the fall of 1831 I w^ent to Augfusta 
 to learn the tanning-, currN^ng- and shoemaking- 
 business with Hazard Wilbur, a deacon of my 
 father's church. 
 
 At a revival meeting* in September 1832, I 
 with many others, became a Christian, and 
 was baptized by my father. Soon after I 
 became impressed with the conviction that it 
 was my duty to preach the gospel, and a few 
 weeks later I began at the Hamilton Literary 
 and Theological Seminary a course of study 
 to prepare for the ministry. 
 
 In the spring- of 1833, Professor Daniel 
 Hascall opened at Florence, Oneida County, a 
 manual labor school, which I entered. During- 
 school term — out of school hours, my room 
 mate joined me in cutting down trees and 
 chopping- them into logs, which during- vaca- 
 tion w^e hauled with a yoke of cattle, hired for 
 
7 
 
 the purpose, and the land cleared in this way, 
 helped to defray part of the cost of our educa- 
 tion. 
 
 I tauo-ht school two winters, tliat of 1834-5, 
 at Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, 
 at the head of the Wyoming- Valley. 
 
 Across the Susquehanna River in sig^ht of 
 Pittston, occurred the Wyoming- massacre of 
 the settlers by British Tories and Indians in 
 July 1778. One of the little g'irl captives 
 carried away by the Indians was Francis 
 Slocum, and among my pupils was a young 
 lady who was her niece. Pifty-seven years 
 passed and no intelligence had ever been re- 
 ceived of the captives. Some years after this 
 she was found in Indiana with the remnant of 
 a tribe, the wife of an Indian, and mother of 
 g-rown children. A brother and sister from 
 Pennsylvania visited the tribe and endeavored 
 to induce her to return and spend the remain- 
 der of her life with them; but she refused, 
 prefering to stay with her children. 
 
 In March 1838, I held a revival meeting- in 
 Deacon Holdrege's school house in the town 
 of Frankfort, Herkimer County, a few miles 
 west of Frankfort village. Father Harvey, a 
 licensed preacher 104 years old, was a good 
 helper at these meetings. His wife by sec- 
 ond marriage, was so much younger than him- 
 self, her family opposed the marriage for the 
 
8 
 
 reason that she would soon have a helpless old 
 man to care for. But she became old and 
 feeble, and Father Harvey, much smarter and 
 more active, had her to care for, which he did 
 with the utmost love and tenderness. 
 
 As in his young-er days, the first thing- on 
 rising- in the pulpit was to take off his coat. I 
 love to recall those school house revivals with 
 Father Harvey in his chair in front of the 
 desk and his tender heart-moving" voice in 
 prayer and exhortation. 
 
 During- April and May 1838, in the absence 
 of Elder Thomas Houston, the pastor, I 
 preached m the Baptist Church at Frankfort. 
 At this time my father, then pastor of the 
 Litchfield Church, was engag-ed in a revival at 
 Little Falls. The meeting-s were interesting 
 and powerful, and I went down to witness the 
 display of God's saving* mercy and help in the 
 g-ood work. 
 
 From Frankfort to Little Falls, twelve 
 miles, w^as my first ride on a railroad. The 
 rails were of wood, with strap iron about the 
 width and thickness of a wag-on tire spiked 
 on. The coaches contained two compartments 
 with cross seats, passengers on one seat 
 riding backwards. The conductor while col- 
 lecting tickets, walked on a plank outside 
 holding onto a hand rail under the eaves of the 
 coaches. 
 
Arriving- at Little Falls I went directly to 
 the church where services were beingf held. 
 After church I was invited to the home of 
 Stephen W. Brown, then Sheriff of Herkimer 
 County, a leading- merchant and business 
 man, with the understanding- that I would be 
 entertained there during my stay. Meeting- 
 with a very cordial reception, I soon felt at 
 home with Mr. Brown's family, which con- 
 sisted of himself and wife, and Georg-e D. 
 and Frances Lyon, brother and sister of Mrs. 
 Brown. Thoug-h of the same name, we were 
 not related, and this was my first visit to 
 Little Falls. 
 
 Mr. George Lyon had for some time been a 
 member of the Baptist Church, and his sister 
 Frances, whom I met there for the first time, 
 and who became in the fall following- my loved 
 and honored companion in the journey of life; 
 was a very bright and interesting- convert of 
 the revival then in prog-ress. I have always 
 felt that this meeting- and its results was 
 kindly directed by an over-ruling- and all-wise 
 providence. 
 
 Rev. J. W. Olmsted, long- the able and influ- 
 ential editor of the Watchman of Boston, 
 was the beloved pastor of the Little Falls 
 Baptist Church at this time. 
 
 With a class of about twenty-five, I finished 
 the course at Hamilton, July 15th, 1838 and 
 
10 
 
 on the 20th of September at Litchfield where 
 my father was pastor, I was re^rularly or- 
 dained to the work of preaching- the gfospel. 
 
 On September 26th in the Baptist Church 
 at Little Falls, Rev. Augustus Beach officia- 
 tinof, I was married to Prances Lyon. 
 
 Throug-h the influence of my brother Will- 
 iam, then pastor of the Baptist Church at 
 Newport, I had been invited to visit the 
 church at Norway, Herkimer County, which 
 resulted in a call to the pastorate. 
 
 Earh^ in November w^e began housekeeping- 
 in the Norway parsonage, with the untried re- 
 sponsibility of pastoral work on a salary of 
 $275.00 a year and the use of the parsonage. 
 
 Through the very kind and generous assist- 
 ance of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen W. Brown we 
 had a plain but sufficient outfit for house- 
 keeping. 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 For reasons that at the time seemed suf- 
 ficient, we remained but eig-hteen months in 
 Norway. 
 
 Two of the deacons objected to the pastor 
 using- the same text for morning* and after- 
 noon services presenting- different branches 
 of the subject, the object being- to avoid long- 
 sermons. 
 
 Not knowing- what the outcome of their 
 opposition mig-ht be, I quietly resig-ned, leav- 
 ing- the church in peace and harmony. 
 
 Precious revival influences were enjoyed 
 during- our stay, twenty-nine being- baptized, 
 but not all into the Norway church. 
 
 On July 30, 1839, at the Norway parsonag-e, 
 our first child was born, a little boy, who 
 was named Benjamin Perry. 
 
 Early in March 1839, I went by appoint- 
 ment to visit the church in Morehouseville, 
 Hamilton County, twenty miles north of Nor- 
 way, in the primeval forest then known as the 
 Great North Woods, now the Adirondack 
 reg-ion. 
 
 I found there a few worthy members and 
 
 111] 
 
12 
 
 at once l)e<^an revival meetinj^s in the school 
 house. 
 
 Oh, the precious seasons there enjoyed. 
 ''How sweet their memory still." 
 
 On March 24th, a beautiful bricrht sunny 
 dav, the snow still deep in the wilderness — 
 the ice bein^ cut away in the west Canada 
 creek — I baptized nine in its clear waters. 
 In May followincr I visited the place a<ifain and 
 baptized two more. 
 
 I always enjoyed missionary work in school 
 houses and distant neig-hborhoods of my pas- 
 toral fields. 
 
 During- the first pastorate at Norway, I 
 visited a new settlement at the head of Pizeco 
 Lake, about twenty miles beyond Morehouse- 
 ville, in the almost pathless wilderness. 
 
 Leaving" Norway, our next field of labor 
 beginning- in April 1840, w^as in the town of 
 Warren, in the southern part of Herkimer 
 County. Little could be accomplished in re- 
 lig-ious work the first year owing- to the excit- 
 ing- and all-absorbing- ''Log- Cabin, Hard 
 Cider, Tippecayioe and Tyler too'' Presiden- 
 tial campaign, resulting- in the election of 
 Harrison and Tyler. But the following- year 
 a g-ood deg-ree of interest was manifested and 
 baptism and additions to the church member- 
 ship occurred frequently. 
 
 A gfrownng- interest in and love for pioneer 
 
13 
 
 missionary work directed our thoug-hts to 
 some new field of labor in the distant West. 
 
 At Warren October 30th, 1840, our second 
 child was born, a son, who was named Charles 
 Perry. 
 
 During- this month our wish for missionary 
 work in the West was laid before the New 
 York State Missionary Convention at its 
 annual meeting- then in session at Whitesboro. 
 
 The application said nothing about salary . 
 or any special location, excepting- a prefer- 
 ence expressed for lotva. The request was 
 favorably endorsed by the convention and an 
 appointment by the American Baptist Home 
 Missionary Society recommended. 
 
 This appointment came in due time, desig- 
 nating the forks of the Maquoketa river in 
 Jackson County, Iowa, as the field of labor, 
 with an allowance of one hundred dollars a 
 year from the board and seventy-five dollars 
 for traveling expenses to the field. 
 
 Our family then consisted of myself, wife 
 and the two little boys, Benjaminand Charles. 
 As household goods could not be economically 
 shipped so far we sold everything- except 
 clothing-, bedding, a common table and stand 
 which could be conveniently packed, and a 
 rocking chair, taken for the comfort and con- 
 venience of the mother in caring for the little 
 ones on the journey. 
 
14 
 
 We boug-ht a small cook stove, which was 
 taken down, packed in straw and boxed for 
 shipment. All told our household effects 
 weighed about 1600 pounds. 
 
 On Monday May 2nd, 1842, we left Utica on 
 a passeng-er packet known as a Line boat on 
 the Erie canal, bound for Buffalo en route to 
 Iowa territory. 
 
 These boats w^ere provided with a comfort- 
 able cabin w^th berths for passen^rers in the 
 bow, kitchen and dining- cabin at the stern 
 and space amidships for freig^ht and bag-gag-e. 
 With g-ood company, clean wholesome food, a 
 sober and accommodating- master and crew, 
 the two hundred mile trip from Utica to Buf- 
 falo was comfortable and pleasant. The fare, 
 two cents per mile, which included berth and 
 board with no charg-e for young- children, was 
 very reasonable. 
 
 Arriving- at Tonawanda, twelve miles from 
 Buffalo, at midnig-ht Saturday, we lay by 
 until the next midnig-ht, as the boat did not 
 run on the Sabbath. We reached Buffalo at 
 daylig-ht Monday May 9th, and the family 
 and g-oods were transferred to the Lake 
 •steamer, "Great Western," Captain Walker 
 commanding-, which was due to leave that 
 evening- for Chicag-o. 
 
 The shades of nig-ht were falling- when the 
 great steamer with nearly four hundred pas- 
 
15 
 
 seng-ers bound mostly for Illinois, Iowa and 
 Wisconsin, put out into the lake for Chicago. 
 Very few had ever been on the water, and 
 ominous clouds were looming- up in the west. 
 
 The cabin passeng-ers g-athered on the prom- 
 enade deck, some looking- back on the lig-hts 
 of the city toward the homes and loved ones 
 they were leaving-; some at the dark waters of 
 the lake, and some anxiously at the threaten- 
 ing- clouds, many with tearful eyes. 
 
 It was one of the most solemn and intensely 
 interesting- scenes we ever witnessed and one 
 we will never forg-et. 
 
 We retired to our state room but could not 
 sleep The storm broke upon us with g-reat 
 fury in the nig-ht, but our noble steamer met 
 and faced it bravely, and broug-ht us safely 
 into the harbor at Cleveland, which was the 
 first landing- place. 
 
 The effect of the nig-ht's storm on the 
 stomachs of the passeng-ers was manifest at 
 breakfast, many being- absent from the table. 
 
 We lay at Cleveland a few hours waiting- for 
 the storm to pass. 
 
 Excepting- a similar experience on Lake 
 Huron, compelling- us to lay by for four hours 
 at Presque Isle, we had pleasant sailing- to 
 Chicag-o, where we arrived Saturday after- 
 noon and put up at a small two-story hotel 
 called the New York House. 
 
16 
 
 In the eveninj^- we attended meeting in the 
 Baptist Church, located on the lot where the 
 Chamber of Commerce now stands, and heard 
 a sermon bv Rev. Thomas Powell. The 
 church was a frame building- boarded "up and 
 down" and battened, w^ithout ceilin<^, exposing- 
 collar beams, rafters and roof boards. 
 
 The Court House w^as near by on a five acre 
 lot enclosed with a common fence. It was a 
 small brick building, located at the north side 
 of the lot. 
 
 The following- letter to a sister in New York 
 State, written by Mrs. Brown en route, May 
 12th-16th, 1842, is interesting-: 
 
 Thqrsday, Lake St. Clair, 
 May 12th, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sister and Brother — 
 
 In accordance with your request, I improve 
 the first convenient season for writing- you 
 some of the incidents of our journey thus far. 
 We are on board the Great Western, the 
 most splendid vessel on the lakes. It is a 
 lovely morning, the lake is still and we are 
 sailing at the rate of twelve miles an hour. 
 We are furnished with every comfort and 
 convenience that could be obtained in the best 
 hotel. Our journey has been pleasant, with 
 the exception of some little sea-sickness for 
 
17 
 
 the first few hours on "Lake Erie. Benny and 
 myself have had a pretty thoroug-h emetic. 
 Mr. B. and Charley escaped with a little 
 nausea of the stomach, and no vomiting-. We 
 have been sailing- up the Detroit river this 
 morning with Victoria's dominions on our 
 right hand, and borders of Michigan on the 
 left; passed a British military station; saw a 
 number of her Majesty's red-coated gentry. 
 Our steamer stopped some time at Detroit. 
 We went on shore. I priced articles in a 
 number of dry goods establishments, found a 
 handsome assortment, and as low as can be 
 purchased in New York. We find the tide of 
 emigration to the far west has by no means 
 subsided. There are between three and four 
 hundred passengers on board, and quite a 
 large proportion go round to Chicago. The 
 children have been less trouble than I antici- 
 pated. We left Utica Monday morning in the 
 Little Western; Captain Newcomb, a pleas- 
 ant man and fine crew; heard no profane 
 language; had a good cook and good fare, 
 and with the exception of speed found our- 
 selves comfortable. 
 
 Called on Mrs. Dr. Grey, found her well. 
 Saw Elon Carpenter and his wife, and Mrs. 
 Carpenter, Mrs. Grey's mother, likewise her 
 sister, Mrs. Beach and two daug-hters. Called 
 on Mrs. Lyman, saw her and her boy. Mr. 
 
18 
 
 Lvnian was not in. Slic li\cs (lirc*ctl\' ()])p()- 
 site Dr. Grey in Jordan, (juite a pretlv villa<^e 
 on the canal. Had the f^j-ood fortune to find 
 Cousin Francis in All)ion, thouLfh we had but 
 a short time to visit with him. He was well, 
 in o-ood spirits; says he is doino- well, and 
 desio-ns visitin<r Little Palls in July (tell 
 friend C. we shall want a ofood hatter in our 
 cit3\ and I think thev had better come on). 
 Cousin Francis seemed very glad to see us, 
 and said he would have g-one on with us to 
 Buffalo had he not been in the dye kettle. 
 
 We were detained by a break in the canal 
 below Rochester, in consequence of w^hich we 
 did not reach Buffalo as soon as we expected. 
 The boat belonged to the six-day line, and lay 
 up at Tonawanda, a villag-e twelve miles be- 
 low^ Buffalo, and spent the Sabbath. A Meth- 
 odist minister preached in the morning-, and 
 Mr B. in the afternoon. We were invited to 
 tea at the public house kept by a Mr. Brig-gs, 
 w^hose wife is a Baptist On the whole, spent 
 the day quite pleasantly. We were detained 
 in Buffalo until Tuesday, seven in the evening- 
 waiting- for the sailing of the vessel. 
 
 Monday Morning, Chicag-o, 
 May 16th, 1842- 
 
 We arrived in this city yesterday afternoon 
 safe and sound. Our passage from Buffalo, 
 
19 
 
 tog-ether with freig-ht, cost us forty-eig-ht dol- 
 lars; from Little Falls to Buffalo twenty- 
 three. 
 
 We had one day of roug-h weather on Lake 
 Huron but none of us were sea sick. I think 
 had not my stomach been foul I should have 
 escaped altog-ether. On the w^hole w^e have 
 had a pleasant journey; are much pleased with 
 the appearance of the western country so far. 
 Milwaukee, Racine and Southport on the Wis- 
 consin shore are pleasant villag-es. We passed 
 Mackinaw in the nig-ht, reg'retted it very 
 much, as it is said to be a very interesting 
 spot. 
 
 We are at the New York House in Chicag-o. 
 There were eig-hty people at breakfast; very 
 g-ood accommodations; have plenty of radishes, 
 onions, lettuce, etc, 
 
 Mr. B is making- arrang-ements for prose- 
 cuting- our journey to Iowa. The weather is 
 fine and the roads g-ood, and we hope to g-et 
 along- without any difficulty. 
 
 Benny talks about Aunt Brown and baby 
 Georg-e, Pred, Aunt Mary and all the friends 
 he has left behind. I cannot realize the dis- 
 tance that separates us. It seems to be anni- 
 hilated by the facilities for overcoming- it. I 
 think to come by railroad from Little Falls to 
 Buffalo, and then by the lakes to Chicag-o, 
 would make a delig-htful jaunt. Take an 
 emetic before you leave. 
 
20 
 
 We shall hope to see you next season, I 
 think the first of June or last of May would be 
 about the rij^ht time to leave. 
 
 A very g-enteel family from the city of Phil- 
 adelphia are just leaving for the country. 
 
 We shall soon be on the load teamino- oif. 
 Remember us affectionately to all friends — 
 Chloe, Mrs. Green, the doctor. Dr. Brown, all 
 the irood brothers and sisters in the church. 
 
 I just sent to the office hopino- for a letter 
 or papers from home, found none. Let us 
 hear from you at our home, Nelson has the 
 direction. 
 
 Love agfain to all. 
 
 Yours in haste, 
 
 Frances. 
 
 Mrs. S. W. Brown, Little Falls, ) 
 Herkimer County, N. Y. f 
 
 On Monday we found a man from Rockford, 
 Illinois, who came in with a lumber wa^^on 
 and a load of produce and eno-ag-ed him to take 
 us to Savanna, on the Mississippi river. After 
 loading- our thino-s, the rocking- chair brougfht 
 from New York was fastened on top of one of 
 the boxes with a small chair secured along-- 
 side. 
 
 Seated in the rocker with the young-est 
 child in her lap, and the other in the little 
 chair by her side Mrs. Brown cheerily said, 
 
21 
 
 "Now, this is fine," and there was sunshine 
 on the load all the way throug-h. 
 
 I took a seat on the box beside the driver 
 with our feet on the whiffle-trees, and we 
 started on our two hundred mile drive to 
 our future home in the territory of Iowa. 
 
 A dry spring- fortunately saved us the 
 trouble of pryino- our wag-on out of the mud in 
 the streets of Chicag-o. 
 
 We stopped for the first nig-ht about twelve 
 miles out on the Elg-in road, and the second at 
 a small log* cabin at Pig-eon Woods, sixteen 
 miles west of Elg-in, where a hearty appetite 
 for supper was demoralized by badly tainted 
 ham; and the presence of two loads of stag-e 
 coach passeng-ers to be cared for oblig-ed us 
 to sleep on the floor. But these incidents 
 were minor matters in a journey like this. 
 
 Early next morning-, proceeding- on our way 
 we found a satisfactory breakfast at a small 
 cabin located where the town of Mareng-o now 
 stands. At noon we reached Belvidere, where 
 we enjo3'ed a visit with Prof. P. S. Whitman 
 who was one of my teachers at Hamilton. 
 Here on the public square we saw the stakes 
 used to support a rude platform which had 
 been the resting- place of the body of an 
 Indian chief. The body was g-one but the 
 poles and some frag-ments of hisburial dress 
 
22 
 
 were there, a dismal and orewsome reminder 
 of the past. 
 
 That evening- we arrived at the west side 
 tavern at Rockford where, to our great disap- 
 pointment, our teamster was summoned as a 
 witness in a case on trial, delaying- us until 
 the following- Monday. But while tarrying* 
 we found a g-ood home and pleasant friends in 
 the family of the Rev. Solomon Knapp, pastor 
 of the Baptist Church at Rockford, for whom 
 I preached on Sunday; my first sermon in the 
 west. 
 
 Monday morning", in g-ood health and spirits, 
 with fine weather and roads we continued our 
 journey, taking- the Galena stag-e road to 
 Twelve Mile Grove, thence turning* directly 
 west for the Mississippi. 
 
 About sun down w^e reached Crane's g-rove, 
 and as the next stopping- place was eig-hteen 
 miles west, here we must put up for the 
 nig-ht. Mrs. Crane from Kentucky, middle 
 ag-ed and stout, was just coming- from the 
 cow yard with a pail of milk. To our inquiry 
 if we could stop for the nig'ht she replied, 
 "Oh, I reckon, thoug-h I am mig-hty tired. 
 The old cow g-ives a rig-ht smart of milk, well 
 on to half a bushel." 
 
 That night our teamster overfed his horses 
 with gfrain and next morning- found one of 
 them dead. We arrang-ed with Mr. Crane to 
 
23 
 
 take us eig-hteen miles to Cherry grove, where 
 we stopped with a Mr. Gardner, Mr. Crane's 
 brother-in-law, who next day took us to Savan- 
 na on the Mississippi. We here had our first 
 view of the mighty river, its volume then being- 
 much greater than in later years. That even- 
 ing we were ferried across to Charleston, now 
 Sabula, and put up for the night at the town 
 tavern. In the morning- eng-ag-ed a man and 
 team to take us the remaining twenty-five to 
 thirty miles to the end of our long journey. 
 
 Owing to rain we were late in starting. 
 About noon stopped for dinner at a cabin on 
 the west bank of Deep Creek, where we found 
 nothing to eat but eggs. Of these they had 
 eleven, which were boiled for us. 
 
 The children would not eat them. We did 
 not see any other human habitation until night 
 had fallen, when the little ones, tired and 
 hungry, had long- since cried themselves to 
 sleep. 
 
 In the darkness of midnight we reached a 
 cabin occupied by Mr. C. W. Doolittle, when 
 at that spectral hour, in silence and solitude 
 that could be felt, we were at the end of our 
 long journey, nearly a thousand miles from 
 home and friends in the distant east. The 
 Indian had recently left, and his pale faced 
 successors were few and far between. 
 
 We had been twenty-four days on the road 
 
24 
 
 and had lost but little time, havin<»- diligently 
 pursued our way from the start. It is one of 
 the wonders of a marvelous a^e to realize that 
 the distance can now be made in less than 
 twentv-foiir hours in luxurious ease and com- 
 fort and that this is actually done every day. 
 With cordial frontier hospitality which we 
 g-ratefully appreciated, Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle 
 turned out and welcomed us, prepared supper 
 and then g-ave us their bed, while they found 
 lodg-ing- for themselves and family in the cabin 
 loft. Tired and worn by the long- and tedious 
 last day's drive we slept sweetly and soundly, 
 four in the bed, myself, wife and two children. 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 Arriving- in the nig-ht we could see nothing- 
 of the near by country, and owing- to a dense 
 fog- nothing- was visible next morning-. 
 
 After breakfast, accompanied by Brother 
 Doolittle, I called on some neig-hboring fami- 
 lies two miles to the southwest. 
 
 Upon inquiry I found to my surprise that 
 there was no church or organized Baptist 
 society. The settlement was very new, with 
 a few Baptist families widely scattered. This 
 and the fog-, and the fact that aside from the 
 $100 per year from the home missionary board, 
 our living- was to come from our field of labor 
 was rather discouraging- and made me feel a 
 little blue. 
 
 But during our walk a breeze came up and 
 carried away the fog. The clouds lifted and 
 the sun came out, revealing a most beautiful 
 prairie country to the south, with a grand body 
 of Moquaketa timber to the north for a back- 
 ground. My blues went with the fog; hope, 
 couragfe and cheer came with the sunshine and 
 clear sky. But how would my dear wife feel, 
 for I knew, and she knew, that the privation 
 
 L25] 
 
26 
 
 and hardship of a new country would fall most 
 heavily on the wife and mother in the little log* 
 cabin home. 
 
 Doubt was soon removed, for on my return 
 she met me near the house with a bright and 
 cheerful face saying-, "Charles, we came to 
 Iowa to do good and we will stay and trust in 
 the Lord." 
 
 Oh, how welcome was that g-reeting. We 
 had faith in God's promise: "Trust in the 
 Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the 
 land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 
 
 We arrived at the cabin of Brother Doolittle 
 at midnight on Thursday, May 26, 1842. The 
 Baptist families and settlers g-enerally g-aveus 
 a very cordial welcome. 
 
 A meeting- was to be held at Iowa City June 
 3rd to org-anize a Territorial Missionary Con- 
 vention, and I desired to attend. Iowa City 
 was about a hundred miles to the southw^est 
 and there w^as no roads to mention and very 
 few settlers on the route. 
 
 Bro. Doolittle's family was larg-e and we 
 found a temporary home with Bro. Levi 
 Decker. Sister Decker very kindly proposed 
 •to care for our little ones and allow Mrs. 
 Brown to g-o with me to Iowa City, an arrang-e- 
 ment we were g-lad to make. Procuring a 
 horse and lig-ht wagon of Brother Doolittle, 
 we set out on the morning- of June 1st, taking- 
 
27 
 
 a trail that led to what was known as Ber- 
 g-oon's ford across the Wasepinecon river 
 some twenty-five miles away. We soon lost 
 the dim uncertain trail, but having- a good 
 general idea of the direction did not miss our 
 way. The weather was fine, the prairies car- 
 peted with wild flowers, and the trip novel 
 and wonderfully interesting-. The broad ex- 
 panse of rolling prairies extending- in every 
 direction as far as the eye could reach, with 
 now and then a beautiful grove to relieve the 
 monotony, was a g-reat change from the hills, 
 valleys and heavy timber of our central New 
 York home. 
 
 Nearing the Wapsy settlement we came 
 onto a prairie creek, narrow and deep with 
 abrupt banks. How to cross was a prob- 
 lem. But we were nearly twenty miles on 
 our road and would not turn back. Helping 
 Mrs. Brown across with our bag-g-ag-e I started 
 far enough away from the creek to g-et the 
 horse on a smart trot, and as he came to the 
 bank gave him a sharp blow with the whip at 
 the same time jumping- out. Over he went, 
 scattering- thing's, but nothing- was broken or 
 damaged. We stopped for dinner at the little 
 cabin of a settler not far beyond the creek. 
 An early start and the long- June day's drive 
 broug-ht us to Tipton, the county seat of 
 Cedar Countv, for the night. We found there 
 
28 
 
 a log" cabin hotel and a loo- court house. Leav- 
 ino- appointments for preachin<^- at Tipton and 
 the Wapsy crossino- settlement on our return 
 trip, and o-etting- an early start and niai<in«-a 
 long- drive, we reached Iowa City on the even- 
 ing of the second day. 
 
 At this time there were no railroads west 
 of the State of New York. The western 
 boundary of lands to which the Indian title 
 had been extinguished by treaty and purchase 
 and which were open to settlement, was only 
 eighteen miles from Iowa City. The counties 
 bordering on this west line were Van Buren, 
 Jefferson, Washington, Johnson, Linn, Buch- 
 anan, Fayette and Clayton. 
 
 It was ofood to meet the brethren and sis- 
 ters from different and distant parts of the 
 territory. Business was soon and easily at- 
 tended to, and the last three days were occu- 
 pied with preaching and devotional services. 
 Returning we filled the Tipton appointment 
 Monday, and at the Wapsy settlement the next 
 day, arriving home that night. 
 
 Our next important temporal affair was to 
 select a location and build a log house. Tim- 
 ber being plenty and saw mills scarce, houses 
 were generally of logs. 
 
 Becoming acquainted with the people at 
 Wright's Corners, two and one-half miles 
 south of the present site of Maquoketa, we 
 
29 
 
 decided to locate there. Our neig-hbors were, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wrig-ht, Alfred Wrig-ht, 
 Levi Decker, John Rig-g-s, David Bentley and 
 others, and better people we need not ask for. 
 They very g-enerously turned out with teams 
 and axes and cut and hauled log's from a g^rove 
 a few miles west for a cabin 12 x 18 feet. 
 The log's were hewn on two sides, and in a 
 fortnig-ht the body of the house was up. Some 
 sawed lumber was necessary, and Mr. John 
 Rig-g-s joining- me, we went to a saw mill at 
 Canton, eig-hteen miles above, on the Maquo- 
 keta river. Going- on foot to Canton we 
 boug-ht the lumber, made a raft of it and 
 started down the river throug-h a dense wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 The undergrowth was thick in the heavy 
 timber, with but few clearing's, the river low, 
 and snag-s and sand bars g-ave us much trouble 
 making- our prog-ress slow. At sundown of 
 the first day we came to the hut of an old 
 hermit named Lodg-e. The next clearing- and 
 cabin were miles below\ We were hung-ry 
 and wet. It was unseasonably cold, and nig-ht 
 with Eg-yptian darkness was coming- on in 
 that narrow stream, w^ith its heavy timber 
 and underg-rowth. But Lodg-e's cabin was a 
 wretched place, shared by a chicken pen and 
 afforded no accommodation. There was noth- 
 ing- to do but g-o on and that we did. 
 
30 
 
 It soon became so dark we could not 
 see each other on the raft and nothino- of the 
 river or our vveiy, but by ^ood fortune, snagfs, 
 sand bars and the rixer banks were avoided. 
 In fact we went better in the darkness than 
 we had in the daylig-ht. A break in the for- 
 est o-iving- a g-limpse of the sky told us when 
 the next clearing- was reached about eleven 
 o'clock. 
 
 Neither habitation or lig-hts were visible, 
 but a hail brought a response. We found a 
 comfortable cabin with a cheerful and most 
 welcome open fire. Getting some bread and 
 milk for supper, the next want was a place to 
 sleep. There were in the small room three 
 beds all fully occupied. But two men in a 
 bed on the floor very kindly proposed to lie 
 cross-ways and make room for us and we 
 turned in, and being very tired, slept soundly. 
 
 The next day completed the river part of 
 our journey, and a three mile haul to the south 
 brought our lumber to its destination. 
 Wright's Corners were on the line between 
 Jackson and Clinton Counties, and our cabin 
 was about twenty rods from the line, in Clin- 
 ton County, on the east side of the north and 
 south road, with the east branch of Prairie 
 Creek in front on the west, the road running- 
 between the cabin and the creek. 
 
 With rough loose boards for floors above 
 
31 
 
 and below we moved in, without doors or 
 windows, and I went forty miles to Dubuque 
 for some stove pipe. But settled in our own 
 home, thoug-h scantily furnished with table, 
 stand, rocking- and small chair and a few 
 dishes, we were contented and happy. 
 
 Our first bedstead was of hickory poles. A 
 few carpenters' tools fortunately broug-ht 
 along- provided means for making* many useful 
 articles of furniture out of the boxes in which 
 our g-oods were packed, such as a cupboard 
 for dishes, another for books, and a bed for 
 the oldest boy 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 With our neit^hbors we at once bej^an work 
 on a lo<>' school house, a few rods south of our 
 cabin, where without floor, doors or windows, 
 we opened a Sunday School. A Mr. Thomas 
 Plathers was made superintendent. This was 
 the first school house in Clinton County and 
 there was none in Jackson County, and it was 
 used by me as a meeting* house for preaching" 
 and other relig-ious services. 
 
 Six miles west, at the house of Brother Earl 
 was another place where meetings were reg^u- 
 larly held. There was in Brother Earl's 
 house no stove or fire-place. Fire for warm- 
 ing- and cooking- was built on the g-round in the 
 middle of one room. An opening- was left in 
 the roof to let out the smoke, but it did not 
 all, or always, g-o out of this opening', and my 
 cong-reg-ation was often in tears over the 
 omission. 
 
 Another appointment was at a cabin on a 
 ridg-e twelve miles in the timber. Here a day 
 or two before one of my visits the owner 
 killed a monster panther which was after one 
 of his hog-s. 
 
 [32] 
 
33 
 
 My first sermon in Iowa was in the un- 
 finished log- cabin of John Shaw, where Ma- 
 quoketa now stands; the second at Iowa City; 
 the third at Tipton; the fourth at Berg-oon's 
 Pord on the Wapsy, and the fifth at a Metho- 
 dist Quarterly meeting- held in their log- 
 church in the timber. This church had then 
 no floor or window opening's, light coming- in 
 throug-h the open door, and the spaces in the 
 log- sides. Meeting's held where the villag-e of 
 Maquoketa now stands were in a sod-covered 
 log- cabin built for a blacksmith shop. 
 
 During- the first summer in Iowa, I preached 
 once in Rock Island, four times in Davenport, 
 three times in Marion, Linn County; three 
 times in Tipton, Cedar County; and once at 
 Andrew, the county seat of Jackson County. 
 
 A man named Jackson was hung- to the limb 
 of an oak tree near the log- court house in 
 Andrew that summer for the murder of a man 
 named Perkins. Perkins had a claim on the 
 Maquoketa river, and Jackson jumped it and 
 killed him. This claim was between Canton 
 and Maquoketa, and my neig-hbor Rig-g-s and 
 I, with our raft of lumber, went past the Per- 
 kins' clearing- and the scene of the murder 
 on our trip down the river. 
 
 The one hundred dollars a year from the 
 Missionary Board was the only money re- 
 ceived, and postage, which was twenty-five 
 
34 
 
 cents a letter, made a heavy inroad on this 
 amount, and if some kind Eastern friend en- 
 closed a one dollar bill then the postaj^e 
 became fifty cents. But soon after moving" 
 into our home, Bloomfield postoffice was es- 
 tablished, w^ith our cabin for the office and 
 myself the postmaster; and I was allowed to 
 receive letters free from postag-e as one of 
 the emoluments of the office, a privilege thor- 
 oughly appreciated. How good it was to get 
 letters from the old home and not have to pay 
 out the last quarter for postage. We had one 
 in-coming" and one out-going mail a week, on 
 horse back. 
 
 On Aug-ust 31, 1842, a meeting was held at 
 the home of Brother Earl for the purpose of 
 org-anizing- a Baptist Church. An organiza- 
 tion was effected with the following- members: 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Doolittle, Mr and Mrs. 
 Jason Pangborn, Mr. and Mrs. W. Y. Earl, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Levi Decker, Mr. and Mrs. Esq. 
 Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Brown, Mrs. 
 Eliza Ballard, Mrs. Mitchell. 
 
 Other Baptist People in that region were: 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Wilcox, on Bear 
 Creek; Mr. Woodsworth, twelve miles in the 
 timber; Mrs, Jno. Wilcox, at South Grove; 
 Mrs. David Bently, at Wright's Corners; Mr. 
 and Mrs. Clark, three miles northeast, and 
 Mrs. Palmer at Andrew. 
 
35 
 
 Bro. Jason Pang-born and family came from 
 Northeastern New York. Sister Pang-born 
 was a devoted Christian, educated and re- 
 fined. Like most of the early settlers, their 
 means were very limited. Before leaving 
 their eastern home she became blind. When 
 we called on them they were living- in a 
 small log- cabin at the northeast corner of the 
 quarter section on which the Midland North- 
 western Railway station is located, at Maquo- 
 keta. 
 
 In that little cabin with scarcely anything- 
 contributing- to comfort or convenience, and 
 with her husband and four small children, 
 cheerfully, without complaint, she was, with 
 extended hands, feeling her toilsome way in 
 total darkness, caring- for her family. 
 
 Some years later we attended the funeral 
 of one of her children, a little boy. She had 
 never seen him. At the close of the services 
 she was led to the open coffin. Standing- 
 there tenderly and lovingly for a few moments 
 with tears fast falling- from her sig-htless eyes, 
 she passed her hands over the cold face say- 
 ing-, "I have never seen the dear child's face. 
 I must get an impression of how he looks." 
 The dear mother has gone where the blind 
 can see and where loving- eyes are never 
 dimmed by tears. 
 
 At the Iowa City Convention in June, ar- 
 
36 
 
 rano-ements were made for a meetin<r in Dav- 
 enport on the 16th of September, for the pur- 
 pose of orcranizing- an association embracing 
 all the churches north of the Iowa river. 
 When the time came to go to Dav- 
 enport, Bro. Doolittle could furnish a horse 
 for me to ride. But that would not do, 
 as I wanted Mrs. Brown to go. The light 
 wagon used on the trip to Iowa City was gone. 
 Borrowing the rear axle, wheels and hounds 
 of a lumber wagon, I made a pair of shafts 
 from fence poles, and a seat by boring holes 
 in these poles, putting in wooden pins of suit- 
 able length and fastening a board on top. A 
 bundle of oats w;as used for a cushion, made 
 necessary by the lack of spring in the axle- 
 tree. With this conveyance we set out for 
 our forty mile ride to Davenport, having the 
 advantage over our Iowa City journey — of a 
 very well defined road. We thoroughly en- 
 joyed the ride over the broad prairies and 
 through groves, where the foot of civilized 
 man had been, until very recently, a stranger 
 since time began. 
 
 The first human habitation after leaving our 
 neighborhood was at Point Pleasant, Kirtley's 
 ferry, where we crossed the Wapsy, about 
 twenty-two miles from home. A few miles 
 farther on our way brought us to Long Grove, 
 where we found some Scotch families, broth- 
 
37 
 
 ers named Brownlee, and here we stopped for 
 the nig-ht and were very hospitably enter- 
 tained by the kind, good people. 
 
 Early next day we arrived in Davenport, 
 where, notwithstanding- the peculiar and con- 
 spicuous character of our conveyance, and the 
 fact that road carts were not as common and 
 popular as in later years, we had no hesita- 
 tion and felt no embarrassment in driving- 
 throug-h Main Street and to the residence of 
 Dr. Witherwax, where we were invited to 
 stay. 
 
 Our meeting-s were held in the chamber of 
 a small frame building- on Front Street. The 
 following- churches were represented: 
 
 Bath, later LeClaire, org-anized in June 1839, 
 with six members. 
 
 Davenport, org-anized in September 1839, 
 with seven members. 
 
 Dubuque, org-anized in Aug^ust 1840, with 
 eleven members. 
 
 Blooming-ton, now Muscatine, org-anized in 
 October 1841, with five members. 
 
 Iowa City, org-anized in June 1841, with 
 eleven members. 
 
 Forks of the Maquoketa, org-anized in 
 Aug-ust 1842, with fourteen members. 
 
 Also the Church at Rock Island, Ills. 
 
 Every church north of the Iowa river was 
 represented, except one on the line between 
 
38 
 
 Delaware and Jones Counties, of which Rev. 
 Ira Blanchard was pastor. 
 
 The pastors present were, Rev. B. Carpen- 
 ter, Dubuque; Rev. W. B. Morrey, Iowa City; 
 Rev. E. Fisher, Muscatine; Rev. T. Gillett, 
 Rock Island; Rev. C. K. Brown, Maquoketa. 
 
 The following-, which we quote, expresses 
 the spirit of the meeting-, which continued 
 throug-h Friday, Saturday and Sunday; 
 
 "This first meeting- of the Davenport Asso- 
 ciation was one of sweet and precious interest. 
 After sing-ing- at the close, the hymn, "From 
 Whence Doth This Union Arise," the breth- 
 ren reluctantly parted for their homes and 
 their work." 
 
 These were not the days of railroad coaches 
 and cushioned carriag-es, but of emig-rant 
 trails, unbridg-ed rivers, creeks and sloug-hs, 
 lumber wag"ons, prairie schooners and old 
 saddles. 
 
 But there was precious enjoyment in this 
 pioneer missionary life and work and we 
 loved it. How sweet the memory still. 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 The winter of 1842-3, long- and cold, set in 
 early in November with a heavy fall of snow. 
 
 Our unfinished log- cabin away out on the 
 bleak prairie, was not suitable to winter in, 
 and with the approval of the Home Missionary 
 Board, we went to Davenport, intendino- to 
 return to Maquoketa in the Spring-. 
 
 We at once eng-ag"ed in pastoral work with 
 the Davenport and Rock Island Churches. 
 Little could have been accomplished at such a 
 time at Maquoketa; but there was a g-ood 
 opening- in the new field. For many weeks, 
 in the dead of that long- hard winter, revival 
 meetinofs \^ere held in the Rock Island Court 
 House, the solid ice bridg-e on the river en- 
 abling- the Davenport people to attend and 
 take part, which they did, and shared larg-ely 
 in the g-ood result of the work. 
 
 More that fifty new members were received 
 by conversion and baptism in the two churches. 
 Among those baptised were, Harman G. Rey- 
 nolds and wife, John A. Boyer and wife and 
 Horace Anthony and wife. Brother Reynolds 
 became a useful preacher of the g-ospel, and 
 
 [39] 
 
40 
 
 died at Blue Rapids, Kansas. Brother Boyer 
 and wife were for more than forty years 
 among- the most useful and exemplary mem- 
 bers of the Rock Island Church until they 
 died in the Lord. Brother Boyer was for many 
 years a deacon of the church. Brother Horace 
 Anthony and wife were for many years hon- 
 ored members of the church at Camanche, 
 and there they died. Brother Anthony was 
 one of the deacons of the Camanche Church. 
 
 Another of the converts was sister Abigail 
 Swartout, mother of the Rev. P. R. Swartout, 
 an honored minister of the g-ospel in Illinois. 
 
 During- the fall of 1842, the brick walls of a 
 small house of worship were put up by the 
 Davenport Church. A few mild days in Jan- 
 uary were improved to put the roof on, and 
 in this condition it served for holding- meet- 
 ing's. 
 
 At Davenport in 1842-3, Johnny Dillon, a 
 lad of about twelve years, was one of my Sun- 
 day School scholars. 
 
 The family from Montg-omery County, New 
 York, came to Davenport in 1838. They were, 
 like ourselves and many other pioneers, of 
 limited means and the humbler walks of life; 
 kind, pleasant neig-hbors and g-ood friends, of 
 hig-h character. 
 
 The boy, John Forrest Dillon, throug-h his 
 own efforts, industry, integ-rity and ability, 
 
41 
 
 became Judg-e and Chief Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court of Iowa, Judg-e of the United 
 States Circuit Court, and the author of text 
 books on important legal subjects, a credit to 
 the state of his adoption, loved, honored and 
 respected by its people. 
 
 His reputation as a jurist, for ability, at- 
 tainments, integrity and fairness, and as a 
 law-writer, is second to none in the country. 
 
 He resigned his position as United States 
 Circuit Judge, to become Professor of Equity 
 Jurisprudence of the Columbia Law School, 
 and later Chief Counsel for the Union Pacific 
 Railway Company, the Western Union Tele- 
 g-raph Company and the Missouri Pacific Rail- 
 way. 
 
 Judge Dillon is a gentleman of fine personal 
 appearance, commanding- presence, dignified, 
 g-enial, modest, unassuming-, kindly and ap- 
 proachable. 
 
 In the summer of 1843 we made several 
 missionary trips to points up the river, org-an- 
 izing- a church at Port Byron on the Illinois 
 side, where I baptized three into membership, 
 and another at Camanche, where eig-ht were 
 baptized at the time and more later. 
 
 The first annual meeting- of the Davenport 
 Association was held in Dubuque. Deacon 
 Calkins and myself from Davenport were del- 
 eg-ates. We made the eig-hty mile journey 
 
42 
 
 tog"ether in a bug-g^y and put up the first nig-ht 
 at Andrew in Jackson County, about fifty 
 miles from Davenport. 
 
 We here found to our sorrow, that while the 
 Indians had g-one the bed bug-s remained. On 
 retiring" the deacon being- tired, was soon 
 sound asleep, but the elder didn't and couldn't 
 g-o to sleep. Later the attack became so stren- 
 uous he g-ot up and retreated to the door 
 yard and then to a cabin where he found the 
 horse and a nest of pig's. 
 
 The pigs vacated, and after remaining- a 
 time he decided to try the bed ag-ain, thinking- 
 the deacon would by this time monopolize the 
 bug's, but to his amazement they were as 
 plentiful as ever, and ten fleas to every bug-. 
 He then surrendered without condition, 
 giving- up all idea of sleep or rest, and longed 
 for day. These things are mentioned, not in 
 the w^ay of complaint, but as an instance of 
 the spice of pioneer life 
 
 We had at Dubuque a grand, good meeting, 
 six new churches joining the association. 
 Meetings were held in the Baptist Church, a 
 small frame building sixteen by twenty-four 
 feet. This was the first house of worship 
 built by the Baptists in Iowa. The Daven- 
 port Church was the second. Returning 
 home, we put up the first night wdth Deacon 
 Montague near Andrew; very pleasant people, 
 
43 
 
 just out from New York. They lived in a 
 log- cabin, roofed with broad boards which 
 were badly warped. 
 
 A heavy thunder storm came up in the 
 nig-ht and literally rained us out of bed. 
 Deacon Calkins, being- much more sensitive 
 to water than to bed bug's, soon turned out, 
 but the elder stayed until the water beg-an 
 running- into the bed. We felt very sorry for 
 Sister Montag-ue in her eifort to save the nice 
 thing-s she broug-ht with her from her eastern 
 home. Nothing- further of interest occurred 
 on our journey home. 
 
 In the summer of 1843, Capt. Wilson, who 
 ran the ferry between Davenport and Rock 
 Island, put on a horse-power boat in place of 
 a little scow or yawl, which was a g-reat im- 
 provement. 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 Our next field of labor was at LeClaire, 
 fifteen miles above Davenport on the river, at 
 the head of the upper rapids, where we went 
 in the spring- of 1844. The summer of 1844 
 was one of high winds, floods and tornados. 
 
 The second annual meeting of the Terri- 
 torial Missionary Convention was held at Mt. 
 Pleasant in Henry County, in June. Brothers 
 James Turner, William Palmer and myself 
 were deleg-ates from LeClaire. For the 
 journey I furnished a lig-ht lumber wag-on and 
 Brother Turner ahorse. To lig-hten the load 
 the box, except the bottom boards, was taken 
 off. Rain and heavy roads made our prog-ress 
 slow. We put up on the second nig-ht about 
 half way between Muscatine and Wapello, 
 then the county seat of Louisa County, and if 
 clouds ever bursted they did all of that 
 nig-ht. Far away on the uninhabited g-rounds 
 west of Wapello we came about noon the next 
 day to Crooked Creek which was booming-. 
 . It was about thirty feet wide and ten feet 
 deep. Fording- was out of the question. We 
 must swim or turn back, and g-oing- back was 
 no part of the prog-ramme. 
 
 [44] 
 
45 
 
 Finding a grape vine near I cut and pulled 
 it out of the tree. Taking- the wagon to 
 pieces we used the bottom boards for a raft 
 The g-rape vine was fastened to one end and 
 the lines from the harness to the other. I 
 swam the creek with the g-rape vine, and by 
 pulling- the raft back and forth the running- 
 g-ear of the wag-on and our bag-gage was fer- 
 ried across. Then the horse was driven in 
 and caug-ht on the opposite side, and lastly 
 Bros. Turner and Palmer sw^am over. This 
 took time and it was eleven o'clock at night 
 when we reached the banks of Big- Creek four 
 miles from Mt. Pleasant, and found it flooded 
 and impassable by team, and no human habi- 
 tation in sig-ht. Calls long- and loud at length 
 obtained a reply from a man on the opposite 
 bank who said that half a mile above w^e would 
 find a cabin, which we did and w^ere very 
 kindly entertained for the nig-ht. My com- 
 panions being elderly men occupied a bed, 
 and I the floor, before a cheerful fire. In the 
 morning- we crossed the creek on a tree fallen 
 for that purpose, and walked a few miles to 
 Mt. Pleasant, there being neither ford or 
 ferry for our conveyance. The convention 
 meeting-s were held on Friday, Saturday and 
 Sunday, and thoug-h roads and weather w^ere 
 bad there was a g^ood attendance and the meet- 
 ing's were very interesting-, and we felt amply 
 
46 
 
 compensated for all our trouble in petting- 
 there. There was no rain durino- the meet- 
 ing-s and our journey home wns made without 
 troul)le. 
 
 During- our stay at LeClaire, a comfortable 
 brick church with stone basement w^as erected. 
 The credit for building- this church was larg-e- 
 ly due to my w'ife. We went to New York 
 for the winter of 1844-5, and while there Mrs. 
 Brown collected money enoug-h to make a 
 beg-inning-. I quarried rock for the basement 
 and tended the mason. In the summer of 
 1845, Elder J. U, Seeley, pastor of the Baptist 
 Church at Muscatine, w^ith a man and horse 
 towed a flat boat up the river fifty miles to 
 Port Byron for lime to build a meeting- house 
 for his cong-reg-ation. I g-ave him the lumber 
 for doors and window^s. That was the way 
 churches were built in Iowa in early days. 
 While pastor of the LeClaire Church I 
 entered some land on the prairie a few 
 miles west of town and built a small brick 
 house, which we occupied until the fall of 
 1847. Our nearest neig-hbor was a Scotch- 
 Irish family of Campbells, half a mile to the 
 south. East, west and north, the illimitable 
 prairie spread out w^ithout human habitation 
 in sig-ht. 
 
 Between our place and LeClaire lived a 
 family of Cody's, and one of the sons, then a 
 
47 
 
 young- boy, was William P. Cody, who became 
 Buffalo Bill, the famous scout and showman. 
 James DeGrush Brown, our third child and 
 son, was born in the brick house on the 
 prairie, February 9th, 1846. In the summer 
 of 1846, my father and mother made us a most 
 welcome visit, driving- with one horse and a 
 covered bugg-y from Madison County, New 
 York, to Scott County, Iowa, a notable jour- 
 ney. They were six weeks on the road each 
 way. During- our pioneer days in Iowa, 1842 
 to 1851, the Indian tribes, from whom the 
 land was had by purchase and treaty, were 
 frequent visitors. They were the genuine 
 Aborig-ines, uncontaminated by contact with 
 the whites. As a rule friendly but when 
 g*ame was scarce disposed to make free with 
 the cattle and hog-s of the settlers, and their 
 presence always excited some fear of possible 
 dang-er. They were savages and we never 
 knew what they might do. These Indians 
 were fine specimens of their race; stalw^art, 
 dig-nified, comely, active and fearless; well 
 supplied with wig'wams, ponies, robes and 
 blankets, bow^s, arrows and g-uns. A visit to 
 their camp was always interesting- In these 
 early days prairie fires were novel, exciting-, 
 and often dang-erous incidents. In the fall 
 when the heavy g-rowth of grass on prairie 
 and in sloug-hs w^as dead and dry they were 
 
48 
 
 frequent. Seen in the ni^fht, driven swiftly 
 by hi^h winds, extending- for miles, and 
 lig-htintr the heavens with their lurid <4-low, the 
 sio-ht was something- to remember. 
 
 Pioneer life on the far western border had 
 its compensations as well as its hardships, 
 privations and trials. The early settlers were 
 proverbially hospitable. Neighbors were 
 sociable, kindly, sympathetic and helpful; and 
 people who lived this life, as a rule loved it, 
 and preferred it to any other. 
 
 At LeClaire in the fall of 1843, under the 
 labors of Elder J. N. Seeley, a precious and 
 powerful revival of relig-ion occurred, twenty- 
 two being- added to the church by conversion 
 and baptism at the time and more later. 
 
Chapter VII. 
 
 We remained five years in Scott County, 
 from the fall of 1842 until the fall of 1847, 
 when we returned to Maquoketa. We made 
 several visits to that place during* the time, 
 and always felt g-reatly interested in it. Mr. 
 John E. Goodenow. one of the first settlers 
 and proprietor of the town site, presented 
 me with a lot, on the corner of Piatt and Eliza 
 Streets, on which to build a home. The little 
 town had at that time two small g-eneral stores; 
 a blacksmith shop, a small brick school house 
 and a hotel, and probably about two hundred 
 people. Between the north and south forks of 
 the Maquoketa river, north and west of town, 
 was the finest body of timber then known in 
 the Territory, owing- to the fact that the 
 rivers and conformation of the adjacent coun- 
 try protected it from the ravag-es of prairie 
 fires. 
 
 There was no finer farming- country, soil 
 or surrounding-s to be found in the west. We 
 built a comfortable little home on the lot Mr. 
 Goodenow g-ave us and occupied it until May, 
 1851. 
 
 We at once resumed pastoral work at 
 
 [49] 
 
50 
 
 Maquoketa and in Fc'l)ruar\' followino- re- 
 org-anized the church with sixteen members. 
 Durino' this winter the Baptists and Metho- 
 dists joined in holding- revival meeting-s. re- 
 sulting* in g-reat gfood work. The re-organized 
 Baptist Church consisted of nine male and 
 seven female members. The first new mem- 
 bers received by baptism were two young- 
 ladies, Frances Mears and Mary Pang-born, 
 most excellent and exemplary Christians. 
 My outlying stations for missionary work in 
 the Maquoketa field were LaMotte, twent}^ 
 miles to the north; Pence's School House, 
 nine miles w^est on Bear Creek; Burlesons, 
 six miles west, and Wright's Corners, tw^o 
 miles south, where we held very interesting- 
 meetings in the chamber of Mr. Wright's new 
 house. Appointments were occasionally made 
 and filled at Cascade and Andrew; small out- 
 lying settlements. The pastor and church 
 who confine their work to the narrow limits of 
 the town where they are located cannot have 
 much of the gospel missionary spirit. They 
 need more of the spirit of enlargement that 
 animated the church at Jerusalem when God 
 scattered the members and they went abroad 
 preaching the Word. 
 
 Deacon Phillip went down to Samaria and 
 beg-an revival meeting-s, preaching- the prec- 
 ious g-ospel, and there was g-reat joy in that 
 
51 
 
 city; "For when they believed Phillip preach- 
 ing- the thing-s concerning- the kingdom of 
 God, and the name of Jesus Christthey were 
 baptized, both men and women." 
 
 Peter and others came down from Jerusa- 
 lem and they went on with the good work. 
 When we next hear of Phillip he is away 
 southwest of Jerusalem. Coming out upon 
 the g-reat road from Jerusalem to Gaza, he 
 met the Ethiopian Eunuch in his chariot read- 
 ing the book of Isaiah so full of Christ and 
 salvation. God prepares the way for the 
 missionary spirit. Philip said to the Eunuch, 
 ''Understandest thou what thou readest?" 
 "How can I unless some man guides me." 
 "Come with me in the chariot," said the 
 Eunuch, and Phillip began at the same script- 
 ure and preached Jesus unto him. And they 
 came to a certain water and the Eunuch said, 
 "Here is water, what doth hinder me to be 
 baptized?" And Phillip said, "If thou believ- 
 eth with all thine heart thou mayest;" and he 
 answered and said, "I believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God." And they went 
 down into the water, both Phillip and the 
 Eunuch and he baptized him. Here is an 
 admirable illustration of the simplicity and 
 adaptability of the gospel. . Philip did not say 
 "I am only a deacon, wait while I go to Jeru- 
 salem for Peter and he will baptize you No, 
 
Phillip baptized him tind he went on his way 
 rejoicin<4", doubtless preacliinj^' Jesus on the 
 wav and when he ^ot home to Ethiopia 
 
 When we study this bit of Philli])'s history, 
 how he preached and baptized, re^-ardless of 
 modern ritualism and formalism, and the 
 oflorious results that followed, we feel as we 
 imag-ine Father Leonard, a shouting- Metho- 
 dist, did in our boyhood days. He was a 
 small man but a great shouter, and some of 
 his brethren thoug-ht he didn't shout at just 
 the rig-ht time, and remonstrated with him, 
 and he promised to restrain his feeling-s and 
 was remarkably quiet for some time. But one 
 day, in a g-ood old-fashioned meeting-, he w^as 
 seen rubbing- his hands and shrug-ging- his 
 shoulders, when straig-htening- up he shouted, 
 "Amen, praise the Lord." "Amen, hit or 
 miss." 
 
 We do need in our churches more of 
 Phillip's missionary spirit. 
 
 While at Maquoketa a suitable lot was se- 
 cured for a meeting- house. 
 
 In 1845 the Maquoketa people beg-an to plan 
 for an Academy, and Mr. Goodenow, always 
 public spirited, g-enerous and enterprising-, 
 donated a handsome site for the building-. In 
 1849 the work was taken up and vigorously 
 prosecuted. 
 
 Early in the fall of that year at the instance 
 
53 
 
 of the trustees, I went to Eastern New York 
 to solicit funds. Many of the early settlers 
 came from that section and had friends and 
 acquaintances there. 
 
 I found the iron industry, in which the cap- 
 ital and labor of that part of the state was 
 larg-ely employed, paralyzed by adverse tariff 
 leg-islation, (Democratic free trade policy). 
 Business was dull, times hard and money 
 scarce, and ver}^ little could be done in the 
 way of obtaining- aid for the Maquoketa Acad- 
 emy. But in spite of discourag-ement the 
 work went on, and the building-, handsome and 
 commodious for the time and place, was com- 
 pleted. 
 
 Mechanics and laborers eng-ag-ed on the 
 work were boarded in the families of enter- 
 prising- citizens to help along-, the pioneer 
 wives and mothers cheerfully contributing- 
 time and toil in the g-ood cause. Competent 
 teachers were employed and many of the 
 children of the Maquoketa settlers laid there 
 the substantial foundation for their education. 
 Dr. Lake from Kentucky was the first teacher 
 and an uncommonly g-ood one, capable and 
 thoroug-h. 
 
 Good lessons and deportment and thoroug-h 
 training- was the rule. Dr. Lake was for more 
 than forty years a resident of Maquoketa, 
 and died there loved and respected b}^ all. My 
 
54 
 
 brother-in-law, Mr. James O. DeGrush, of 
 Little Falls, New York, with his wife, Mrs. 
 Brown's sister, visited us at Maquoketa in 
 the summer of 1850. 
 
 In June I w-ent with them as far as Rock 
 Island on their homeward journey. 
 
 Returning- with a heavy load of goods for 
 one of our merchants, I was on the road most 
 of one night, w^iich, thou<jfh in midsummer, 
 w^as cold with heavy dew. 
 
 Getting- chilled and taking- a severe cold I 
 was very soon the subject of a serious attack 
 of inflammatory rheumatism, confining me to 
 the house and often to my bed much of the 
 time for many months. My general health 
 became so badly broken I decided in the 
 spring- of 1851 to return to New York in the 
 hope of regaining* it. 
 
 Accordingly, on Tuesday, May 26th, 1851, 
 all needful preparations having been made, 
 we took leave of Maquoketa and our w^estern 
 friends and acquaintances, and with our own 
 conveyance, fitted up for making- the journey 
 overland, turned our faces toward our old 
 home in the far east. 
 
Chapter VIII. 
 
 At Maquoketa on the 20th day of June 1848, 
 our oldest son, Benjamin Perry Brown, then 
 in his ninth year, was drowned in the Maquo- 
 keta river. 
 
 In the afternoon of that day permission was 
 o-iven him and his youno-er brother, Charles, 
 to g-o bathing" with the understanding- that 
 they were to g-o below the Sear's Mill, where 
 the water was shallow and safe. 
 
 They very soon fell in with some town boys, 
 playmates, who were on their way to the river 
 for a swim and were g"oing- to Brown's Pord, 
 above the mill and dam, in deep water. Some 
 of these boys at once began urging* our chil- 
 dren to accompany them, and after a long- 
 parley, at the place w^here the road to the ford 
 put off from the one leading- down below the 
 mill, Benny and Charles went with them. 
 The boys were all young-, none more than ten 
 or twelve years of age. Benny w^as the first 
 one in the water, and was at once beyond his 
 depth. Oscea, son of John E. Goodenow, was 
 the only one wath presence of mind to g-o for 
 help. It came very soon but too late. With- 
 in an hour from the time the boys left home 
 
 [55] 
 
56 
 
 Benny's lifeless body was hrou<i;-ht back. He 
 was of an uncommonly amiable, winnin^r dis- 
 position; lovincr and obedient, considerate and 
 conscientious beyond his years. His sudden 
 death was a terrible affliction and the blow 
 fell wnth crushing- weig-ht upon his mother, 
 who idolized him. 
 
 At our little home in Maquoketa another 
 sad occurrence was the death of Nelson 
 Walker, Mrs. Brow^n's nephew. He was a 
 young- man of the highest character and prom- 
 ise, very capable and energ^etic, just g'oing' 
 into business with every prospect of success. 
 
 He made friends of all he met and his un- 
 timely death was deeply mourned by relatives 
 and friends. 
 
 We left Maquoketa for New York on May 
 26th, 1851, just nine years to a day from the 
 time we came there, intending- to make the 
 journey with our own conveyance, but on Sat- 
 urday following- rain beg-an and continued to 
 such an extent that arriving- at Chicago we felt 
 compelled to abandon the plan. We crossed 
 the lake by steamer to New Buffalo, where we 
 took the cars on the Michigan Central road to 
 Detroit, and a Lake Erie steamboat from 
 Detroit to Buffalo. From Buffalo to Little 
 Palls in Herkimer County, we went with our 
 conveyance. Our first location in New York 
 was at Holland Patent in Onedia County, 
 
57 
 
 where my fathei was pastor of the Baptist 
 Church and where we remained a year, and 
 my health steadily improved. While here I 
 supplied the church at Steuben, a few miles 
 north. 
 
 The place was named for Baron Steuben, a 
 German nobleman, who did valuable service 
 on our side in the war of the revolution. The 
 state of New York o-ranted him sixteen thou- 
 sand acres of land, then a dense wilderness 
 of heavy timber. The loc^ cabin where he 
 spent his summers, and hisg-rave, marked by 
 a plain marble slab, were on this tract of land. 
 In the sprinor of 1852 we went to Russia, in 
 Herkimer County, and preached to the church 
 at that place for a year; and in March 1853, I 
 ag-ain became pastor of the Norway, Herkimer 
 County Church, occupying- the parsonag-e 
 where we beg-an housekeeping- in November 
 1838. 
 
 The extreme anti-slavery views and preach- 
 ing- of a former pastor had divided the church. 
 Althoug-h decidedly anti-slavery myself, I 
 took sides with neither party and made no 
 direct effort for reconciliation or harmony, 
 discourag-ing- all reference to the trouble. A 
 letter written December 5th following- and 
 published in the Watchman of Boston, sets 
 forth the course I pursued and results: 
 
58 
 
 Norway, Herkimer County, N. Y. 
 December 5th, 1853. 
 
 Dear Brother Editor: 
 
 In the autumn of 1838, just from the institu- 
 tion at Hamilton, I commenced my first pas- 
 toral labors with this church, which were 
 continued some eighteen or twenty months. 
 During that time it was my privilege to bap- 
 tize seventeen into the fellowship of the church. 
 After spending thirteen years in other parts of 
 the great harvest, nine of them in the Western 
 Valley, an inscrutable and all-wise Providence 
 has returned me to the people of my first 
 charge, and to occupy the same residence 
 where my dear companion joined me in the 
 responsibilities of housekeeping. I commenc- 
 ed labor here last March, but what a change 
 had come over the condition and prospects of 
 this branch of God's beloved Zion. The once 
 united, prosperous, happy and efficient church 
 was divided and distracted, brotherly love 
 gone, confidence and Christian fellowship gone. 
 That good Christian influence which she 
 once exerted in the community gone. The 
 communion was neglected for two years. The 
 work was commenced with the firm convic- 
 tion that salvation depended upon the gracious 
 work of the Divine Spirit. The preaching 
 during the summer had this conviction con- 
 stantly in view. At Covenant meeting in 
 September the proposition was made and 
 agreed to that all agitation of the subject of 
 
59 
 
 discord should cease in private and public and 
 they would resume travel as a church by ob- 
 serving the ordinance of the Lord's Supper 
 the following Sabbath. It was indeed an in- 
 teresting season. At prayer meeting that 
 Sabbath evening the Good Spirit was present, 
 and before the next Covenant meeting we were 
 in the midst of a revival, with weeping souls 
 saying, "Pray for us," and all hearts melted 
 in view of the matchless mercy and kindness 
 of God. At our third communion season, 
 observed monthly, the hand of fellowship was 
 given to ten joyful converts who had just been 
 baptized. And others followed. While coun- 
 cils and meetings to talk over troubles hardly 
 ever result in peace, harmony and brotherly 
 love, the presence of the Divine Spirit never 
 fails. 
 
Chapter IX. 
 
 At the parsonatre in Norway on July 29th, 
 1853, William Carlos and Georg-e Lyon Brown, 
 twin sons, were born to us. 
 
 We were in central and western New York 
 until July 1857, g'oing- from Norway to Fen- 
 ner, Madison County, the fall of 1854, and to 
 Orleans County in the spring- of 1856. Having- 
 reg*ained health, the Home Missionary Society 
 ag-ain desig-nated me for a field of labor in 
 Iowa. 
 
 On Tuesday, July 14th, 1857, with my fam- 
 ily, Mrs. Brown. James, Willie and Georg-e, I 
 left Buffalo on the steamer "Southern Mich- 
 ig-an" for Toledo, our oldest son Charles re- 
 maining- in Orleans County. 
 
 Arriving- at Toledo 2 p. m. Wednesday, w^e 
 took the Michig-an Southern and Indiana 
 Northern Railway to Chicag-o. Mrs. Brown 
 and the children went by rail, Chicag-o to 
 DeWitt, and I by my own conveyance, horse 
 and bug-g-y to Maquoketa. After visiting- rel- 
 atives and friends at Maquoketa, I left for 
 Northeastesn Iowa, July 30th, to find a field 
 for labor, the selection of a location being- left 
 to me, stopping- the first nig-ht at Dubuque. 
 
 [60] 
 
61 
 
 On the first nig-ht out of Dubuque I put up 
 with a German family just west of Gutten- 
 burg". 
 
 The weather was hot, and German bedding- 
 — a heavy feather bed under and a lighter one 
 for cover, made it a perspiring* time. Satur- 
 day, Aug-ust 1, arrived atRossville, Alamakee 
 County, where I spent the Sabbath, preach- 
 ing- twice. 
 
 Here I met Elder James Schofield, with 
 whom I was to counsel as to a location. But 
 as he knew little of the country west of 
 Alamakee County, the matter was left to my 
 own judg-ment. On Monday I drove nine miles 
 to Waukon, stopping- with Mr. A. J. Hershey. 
 Elder L. M. Newell was pastor at Alamakee. 
 I met here Brother Samuel Hill who was 
 licensed to preach and who proposed to g-o 
 with me. 
 
 I found him pleasant company and a g-ood 
 missionary worker. We w^ent on Tuesday to 
 Preeport, Winnishiek County, stopping- with 
 the family of Brother Leach. 
 
 Here I found several Baptist brethren, and 
 made an appointment to preach on Wednes- 
 day evening-. On Wednesday we walked to 
 Decorah, a few miles, and back. We had a 
 g-ood cong-reg-ation in the evening-, and Broth- 
 er Hill preached. 
 
 On Thursday we followed the Iowa river to 
 
62 
 
 BliifFton, twelve miles eibove Decorah, where I 
 found Elder Rice and several Baptist families 
 
 Elder Rice was a brother of Elders Wm. 
 and Lorenzo Rice, who were fellow students 
 with me at Madison University in Hamilton, 
 New York. 
 
 On Friday, August 7th, we continued our 
 journey to New Oregon and Vernon Springs, 
 in Howard County, stopping at night with 
 Rev. J. W. Windsor, pastor of the New 
 Oregon Congregational Church. 
 
 Brother Windsor was a near neighbor and 
 friend of ours at Maquoketa in 1848. He was 
 living on a farm two miles northwest of Ver- 
 non Springs. I learned from him that there 
 were several Baptist families in that vicinity. 
 On Saturday, August 8th, we went to Vernon 
 where we found and called on a number of 
 Baptists. Elder Chas. H. Roe of Belvidere, 
 111., w^as there visiting relatives and friends, 
 and Elder P. S. Whitman, whom we visited at 
 Belvidere, 111 , in May 1842, on our first jour- 
 ney west, was living at Vernon. We found 
 a very general desire for the organization of a 
 Baptist Church and arranged for meetings for 
 the following day, Sunday, August 9th, Broth- 
 er Roe to preach at Vernon Springs, and I at 
 Father Fuller's, a few miles to the southwest 
 on the prairie. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon a meeting for consul- 
 
63 
 
 tation was held by the Baptist brothers and 
 sisters of Vernon, and arrang-ements were 
 made to meet on Tuesday, at the residence of 
 Judg-e Samuel P. Gilcrest, whose wife, Mary 
 Ann Gilcrest, was a Baptist. We had an 
 excellent meeting- at the appointed time and 
 resolved to org-anize a church on the following- 
 Sunday, 
 
 On Wednesday Brother Hill and I started 
 west to visit Riceville, Osag-e and Mitchell, in 
 Mitchell County, stopping- the first nig-ht at 
 Riceville, and g'oing- next day to Osag-e and 
 Mitchell. This being- Thursday and as we 
 were to be at Vernon Spring's ag-ain on Satur- 
 day we had little time at these places. On 
 Friday morning-, August 14th, we set out to 
 return by way of Pettibone. 
 
 Rain fell heavily the preceding- nig-ht and 
 roads were bad and sloug-hs full, and a mile 
 east of Pettibone we stuck in one and had to 
 unhitch and get the bug-g-y out by hand. 
 Nieht and darkness found us still out on the 
 prairie southwest of Vernon, where we put up 
 at the farm house of Pratt Wallace. An 
 early start on Saturday broug-ht us to Vernon 
 Spring-s in time for breakfast. Vernon 
 Spring-s was located in a beautiful little valley. 
 Judg-e Samuel F. Gilcrest of Mt. Vernon, 
 Ohio, one of the early settlers, gave it the 
 name, Vernon in remembrance of his Ohio 
 
64 
 
 home. Several spring's sending- out at the 
 head of the valley a volume of sparkling- crys- 
 tal water sufficient to make a g-ood sized stream 
 winding- prettily down for a mile to the Tur- 
 key river, sug-g-ested the balance of the name. 
 
 At the foot of the little run was the A. H. 
 Harris mill and pond, and a bluff on the oppo- 
 site bank was covered by a handsome g-rowth 
 of fine timber, The surrounding- country was 
 prairie, rolling- and fertile, flecked with g-roves 
 of oak, hazel brush and crabapple, making- a 
 landscape of rare beauty. 
 
 Indian trails, well worn and deep from long- 
 use followed the banks of all the streams. 
 The Turkey river, a considerable stream, ran 
 across the foot of the Vernon Spring-s valley, 
 and was skirted with handsome g-roves. 
 
 There was at this time a g-eneral store, 
 postoffice, blacksmith shop, tavern, and a 
 frame building- put up for a court house, and 
 about a dozen families. The mill fitted for 
 g-rinding- g-rain and sawing- log-s brought people 
 from a distance. 
 
 It was the family home for many years, and 
 around it cluster tender recollections and fond 
 memories of the past. It is for many reasons 
 a hallowed spot and will ling-er in loving- re- 
 membrance while life lasts. 
 
Chapter X. 
 
 Saturday, August 15th, was spent in pas- 
 toral calls and work, Brother Hill preached in 
 the evening-. 
 
 Sunday was stormy. Elder Pierson, pas- 
 tor of the Baptist Church at Leroy, who was 
 invited down, preached in the morning- and I 
 in the afternoon, after which the dear little 
 church was org-anized. 
 
 The members were, Rev. P. S. Whitman 
 and Mrs. Carrie Whitman, his wife; Father 
 John Bowers and Sister Clarinda Bowers, his 
 wife; Mrs. Mary Ann Gilcrest, wife of Judge 
 Samuel P. Gilcrest; Levi Fuller and Mrs. 
 Mary Harris. 
 
 At this meeting, to encourage the little 
 band and extend the right hand of fellowship, 
 there were present, Rev. Chas. H. Roe, of 
 Belvidere, Illinois, Rev. C. G. Pierson of 
 Leroy, Minn.; Rev. S. Hill of Boston, and Rev. 
 C. E. Brown of the Home Missionary Society. 
 It was held at 4 p. m., Sunday, August 16th, 
 1857, in the up stairs room of the court house 
 at Vernon. 
 
 Our household goods had been shipped to 
 Lansing, Alamakee County; and having decid- 
 
 [65] 
 
66 
 
 ed to locate at Vernon Spring-s, I went with a 
 neig-hbor and two teams after them; leavino- 
 Vernon on Wednesday, September 2nd, re- 
 turning- Saturday, the 4th, and on next Wed- 
 nesday, the 9th, started for Maquoketa to g-et 
 Mrs. Brown and the children, who were then 
 visiting- relatives and friends. 
 
 Arriving- at Maquoketa Friday the 11th, we 
 started the following- Monday for our new 
 home, away northwest in the "Neutral Lands 
 of the Winnebag-oes." 
 
 We reached Vernon Springs on Monday, 
 September 21st, 1857, all well and thankful, 
 and were very cordially welcomed by all and 
 were entertained by Brother C. W. Sawyer 
 and wife, who at that time were proprietors 
 of the Big- Spring- House, a log- cabin, twelve 
 by^ eig-hteen feet, with a lean-to behind. The 
 main part was divided into tw^o rooms by a 
 bed sheet hung- up for a partition, one of the 
 rooms being- occupied by the county officers. 
 
 We at once took possession of a house at 
 the head of the valley, rented for a temporary 
 home, with Judge S F. Gilcrest, Jno. M. 
 Field, Rev. P. S. Whitman and Chas. W. 
 Sawyer and families for our neig-hbors. Ver- 
 non Spring's was at this time the county seat 
 of How^ard Count v, and the people had put up 
 a fair sized frame building- for a Court House. 
 
 Very soon after, the county seat was re- 
 
67 
 moved to Howard Center, five miles west, 
 leaving- the Vernon building- for school and 
 church purposes. The lower rooms were 
 used for school purposes and the upper was 
 pleasant and comfortable, for meeting's. To 
 furnish seats and a pulpit Mr. Cottrell, living- 
 in the g-rove, g-ave us a larg-e bass wood tree. 
 Brother Sawyer and I cut it into log's and 
 hauled it to the mill. 
 
 Mr. A. H. Harris, the mill owner, always 
 public spirited and g'enerous, g-ave us an elm 
 log- and sawed all into suitable lumber, and our 
 meeting- room was soon comfortably seated 
 and furnished for use. 
 
 The first Covenant meeting- of the new 
 church was held at Brother Sawyer's Sep- 
 tember 26th, when Father Benjamin Fuller 
 and myself and wife became members. 
 
 At a meeting- the next day Brothers Whit- 
 man, Fuller and myself were appointed dele- 
 g'ates to the Dubuque Association, soon to 
 meet at West Union, where our church was to 
 apply for admission. 
 
 At the next Covenant meeting-, October 31, 
 Sister Eliza Bushell united by letter, and the 
 following- day Brother James Watson was 
 baptized in the Turkey river and received 
 into membership. 
 
 Beg-inning- Aug-ust 1857, with a little band 
 of eight, the membership in two years in- 
 
68 
 
 creased to thirty, and within the year follow- 
 ing- to over sixty. 
 
 At the organization of the church Brother 
 P. S. Whitman was made clerk and served 
 until April 1859, when Brother C. W. Sawyer 
 succeeded him, Brother Whitman moving" 
 away. 
 
 Father John Bowsers w^as chosen deacon 
 December 6th, 1857, and served until 1863, 
 when a stroke of apoplexy destroyed mind 
 and health. 
 
 Brother James Siddall w^as chosen a deacon 
 and served faithfully until his death. 
 
 On Sunday, March 11th, 1860, Brother John 
 Milton Bowers and Jane, his wife, and Broth- 
 er D. A. Adams and Helena, his wife, and 
 others, were baptized, and on Sunday, April 
 16th following-. Brother William Woodward 
 and seven others w^ere baptized and became 
 members of the church. 
 
 In 1861 a school house w^as built and meet- 
 ingfs were held in it thereafter. 
 
 The winter of 1857-8 set in cold, with heavy 
 snow early in November, mercury g'oing to 
 sixteen below^ zero, but November proved the 
 coldest month. A thaw took off the snow the 
 last of the month and the Turkey river was 
 flooded frequently during the winter. 
 
 Among the families of How^ard County 
 pioneers who w^ere near and valued friends 
 
69 
 
 was that of Brother Geo. W. Fall, who came a 
 year before we did, and was living- with his 
 wife and four daughters in a log- cabin on the 
 farm of Chester M. Carver, a mile south of 
 Vernon. Brother Pall was a licensed minis- 
 ter of the Methodist Church, but not regu- 
 larly engaged in the work. 
 
 While quite a young man he had the misfor- 
 tune to lose a leg. Notwithstanding this he 
 was a very capable, active and tireless worker, 
 a p-ood neigfhbor and a kind friend; his cheery 
 voice and face made him always welcome. He 
 died in How^ard County at the home of his 
 daughter, Mrs. Mary Carver, in July 1900, in 
 his eighty-eighth year, loved, honored, re- 
 spected and mourned by all who knew him; 
 his consistent, christian life, faith and hope 
 maintained to the last. Sister Hannah Pall, 
 his wife, who preceded him to a better land a 
 few years, was in every w^ay a worthy com- 
 panion. 
 
 The four daughters, Mary, Arvilla, Adeline 
 and Sylvia, were very bright, attractive and 
 interesting girls of high character. 
 
 Mary became the wife of Chester M. Car- 
 ver; Arvilla and Reuben W. Beadle were mar- 
 ried in June, 1860. 
 
 On August 30th, 1866, Adeline the third 
 daughter, and my oldest son. Charles P. 
 Brown, were married by me at Brother Pall's 
 
70 
 
 residence in Vernon Springs. Sylvia, (Tib- 
 bie) became the wife of W. B. Morey. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Carver and Mr. and Mrs. 
 Beadle were near and valued neio;-hbors and 
 friends for many years. 
 
 Judg-e Samuel P. Gilcrest, from Mount Ver- 
 non, Ohio, was one of the prominent early set- 
 tlers. He was an educated, courteous and 
 kindly gentleman of high character and a 
 capable, successful attorney. His thoroug-h 
 knowledg-e of the country was very useful to 
 settlers in locating land claims and entries. 
 Sister Mary Ann Gilcrest, his wife, was a 
 highly esteemed member of the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 Their family consisted of three sons, Frank, 
 Murray and John, and one daug-hter, Inez 
 Aug^usta. 
 
 Judge Gilcrest went to California over land 
 in the summer of 1859, and his family followed 
 a few years later. 
 
 Judge and Sister Gilcrest died in California 
 some years since. 
 
 Inez, whose husband, Mr. Hugh Craig-, is a 
 prominent citizen and business man of San 
 Francisco, is living- with an interesting family 
 in Oakland. 
 
 Frank, Murray and John with their families 
 have homes; Frank in Oakland, John inOreg-on, 
 
,>^"" 
 
71 
 
 and Murray in Wyoming-. All honorable and 
 successful business men. 
 
 Among- the earliest acquaintances and 
 friends made in Lime Springs was the family 
 of C. C. Hewitt, who settled in the country in 
 1855, coming- from Northeastern Illinois, 
 where Mr. Hewitt had been engfao-ed as con- 
 tractor in the construction of the Chicagfo & 
 Galena Union Railway. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt located his claim about one and 
 one-half miles west of the old town of Lime 
 Springs, a beautiful quarter section with the 
 low^a river running- throug-h the southeast 
 corner. 
 
 In the autumn of 1855, a log- cabin for the 
 family and a shelter for the yoke of cattle 
 were built. The family consisting- of father 
 and mother and a little baby g-irl named 
 Ella were made as comfortable as possible for 
 the approaching winter, and the work of 
 fencing- and other preparations for breaking- 
 up and working- the farm in the ensuing- spring- 
 were made. 
 
 Mrs. Hewitt's maiden name was Mary E. 
 Chesebro, and she was a daug-hter of Mrs. 
 M. M. Marsh. Mr. Chesebro died in Court- 
 land County, New York, and the w^idow mar- 
 ried Mr. Marsh. 
 
 Two brothers, Oscar and Oliver Chesebro, 
 with their families, came to Lime Spring-s 
 
with the Hewitt's. Oscar pre-empted a quar- 
 ter about half a mile east of the Hewitt claim, 
 while Oliver built a log cabin in the villa^-e 
 just across the road from the one built and 
 occupied for many years by Esquire Marsh 
 and family. 
 
 The long rides in the cold and storms of 
 our northern Iowa winters, which were made 
 every second week to meet my appointments 
 at Lime Spring's, were often tedious, but the 
 warm and generous welcome to the hospitality 
 of those frontier homes alw^ays abundantly 
 repaid the inconvenience and discomfort of 
 the trip. 
 
 Mrs Brown and the twin boys, George and 
 Willie, often accompanied me on these trips, 
 and the boys found many congenial compan- 
 ions and playmates among the children at 
 Lime Springs. 
 
 At a donation party given for my benefit in 
 the log house of Squire Marsh, during the 
 winter of 1860, my son Willie, then only seven 
 years old, met Ella Hew^itt, at that time six, 
 and the mutual interest and admiration were 
 noted -by many present. The acquaintance 
 thus early made continued almost w^ithout in- 
 terruption; and fourteen years later, in the 
 presence of many who had noticed the begin- 
 ning of the courtship, I married the couple at 
 
-sssf^r^ 
 
 
 r 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^- 
 
 'V 
 
 fXjL'^U^ 
 
73 
 
 the Hewitt home in the "new towm" or station 
 of Lime Spring's. 
 
 Among- the families that settled in and 
 about Lime Spring-s I recall the Sanborn's, 
 Cook's, Knowlton's, Ober's, Haven's, Craig-'s, 
 Paddock's, Burg-ess' Van Leuven's, Moulton's, 
 Greenleaf's, Aleck and Georg-e Searles, Bunk- 
 er's, Johnson's. Well's. Dr. Reed and many 
 others, all g-ood citizens and g-ood neig-hbors. 
 Brother Alonzo Sag-e and wife. Father Rey- 
 nolds, Brother William Reynolds and family, 
 Father Buckland and family. Brother D. M. 
 Fuller and family w^ill always be remembered 
 with kindly g-ratitude and love. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt, Father and Mother Marsh, 
 Oliver and Julia Chesebro, Oscar Chesobro, 
 and almost every person in active life in those 
 early days, have passed from life's activities 
 and are sleeping- peacefully in the cemetery 
 which overlooks the beautiful valley where 
 they located and ^vhich they loved so well. 
 
 Esquire Marsh and family left their home 
 in Courtland County, New^ York, the autumn 
 of 1836, coming- by canal from Central New 
 York to Buffalo, and by sailing- v^essel from 
 Buffalo to Chicag-o. 
 
 More than three weeks were consumed in 
 making- the trip from Buffalo to Chicag-o, the 
 vessel entered Lake Michig-an three times. 
 
74 
 
 being- twice blown back throug-h the straits of 
 Mackinack by adverse winds. 
 
 The family first settled in Illinois in the 
 neig^hborhood of Elgin, emigrating to Howard 
 County in the early fifties. 
 
 Mr. Marsh built and operated one of the 
 first grrist mills in Howard County. He was 
 a man of high character, unquestioned integ- 
 rity and his uniform kindness of heart and 
 courtesy won for him a place in the respect, 
 confidence and esteem of the community, such 
 as few men enjoy and w^hich lasted through a 
 long- and useful life. 
 
 Early in the sixties the Richards family, 
 consisting of the father Joseph Richards, his 
 wife and four children, William, Benton, Mar- 
 garet and Annette, moved from Otranto, 
 Minn., to Vernon Springs, and for a number 
 of years kept the tavern in the village 
 
 William was a pleasant friend and compan- 
 ion of our older boys, while Bent and our twin 
 boys, George and Will, were almost inseper- 
 able playmates. 
 
 Joseph Richards enlisted in the army in 
 1862 and saw hard service in the Indian cam- 
 paigns" following- the Sioux massacres of that 
 year. He was honorably discharg-ed from the 
 service after being seriously wounded in bat- 
 tle, and returned to Vernon Springs, w^here 
 he lived many years and where he died. Mrs. 
 
MRS. W. C. BROWN 
 MRS. C, C, HEWITT 
 
 MASTER WILLIAM BROWN PIERCE 
 FIVE GENERATIONS 
 
 MRS. FRANK E. PIEKCE 
 
 ESQ- M. M. MARSH 
 
75 
 
 Richards died in Cresco, to which place she 
 moved after her husband's death. 
 
 William and Marg-aret took advantag-e of 
 every opportunity to acquire an education, 
 and were among- the most efficient school 
 teachers of those early days. William later 
 studied Civil Eng-ineerin^ and became an 
 eng-ineer of ability. 
 
 Marg-aret married Henry Thayer, who died 
 some years ag"o. Mrs. Thayer still lives on 
 the old home place west of Bonair. 
 
 Nettie suffered from a disease of the eyes 
 which left her entirely blind, and she died 
 many years ag-o. She was a patient sufferer 
 for a number of years. 
 
 Benton, the young-er boy, eng-a^ed in min- 
 ing- and has located in Montana or Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 Chester M. Carver of Stockbridg-e, Madi- 
 son County, New York, left home in April 
 1856, for Kansas, visiting-, enroute with 
 friends at Solon, Ohio, where he met Mr. 
 Appollos White from Howard County, who 
 recommended that place for a location. Act- 
 ing* on this advice Mr. Carver came in May 
 and boug-ht a fine claim a mile south of Vernon. 
 In September 1856, Brother Fall from Beloit, 
 Wis., with his family, for a home in North 
 Iowa, met Mr. White at McGreg-or, low^a; who 
 advised him to look at Howard County, which 
 
76 
 
 he did. At Geo. Warren's he met Mr. Carver 
 who proposed to fix up the cabin on his claim 
 for the family. This plan was carried out 
 and in the spring' of 1857 Mr. Carver became 
 a member of the family, and in December 
 1859, he and Mary, the oldest of the four 
 daughters, were married. Mr. Carver has 
 been a resident of Howard County more than 
 fifty years; about fifteen years on the farm 
 south of Vernon; several years in Cresco, and 
 nearly thirty years on a farm joining- the town 
 on the west. The Carver's are people of the 
 hig-hest character, an honor and credit to any 
 community. 
 
 One of our near neighbors in Vernon was 
 Mr. C. W. Sawver, who with his wife and 
 family, came in February 1856, and kept the 
 first hotel in town, a little log- cabin near the 
 Whitman spring. It was not roomy but was 
 home-like — wath a good table, clean beds and 
 tidy rooms, and guests met a cheery welcome. 
 Mr. Sawyer was the flour maker at the Harris 
 mill many years. He enlisted in Capt. James 
 H. B. Harris' Co. I, 38th Iowa Infantry in 
 August 1862; w^as chosen Second Sergeant 
 and served faithfully and bravely for three 
 years until the end of the war. He w^as for 
 eleven years the faithful and efficient deputy 
 sheriff of the county. Brother and Sister 
 Sawyer were exemplary Christians and mem- 
 
77 
 
 bers of the church. She died at Cresco Aug-. 
 9th, 1888, and he Dec. 14th, 1902. Of the four 
 daughters, Eliza married Mr. Geo. Snyder; 
 Josepihne, Mr. H. Middlebrook; Carrie, Mr. 
 W. G. Wildman, and Sarah, Prof. L. E. A. 
 Ling-. 
 
 William Kellow, born in Cornwall, Eng-land, 
 in 1822; came to the U. S. in 1853, and to 
 Howard County in 1856. Mr. Kellow was a 
 stone mason, learning- his trade in Eng-land, a 
 skillful, tireless worker. He boug-ht a farm 
 a mile north of Vernon, w^here himself and 
 family lived for more than thirty years, sell- 
 ino- to make a home in Cresco. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Kellow were orig'inal members of the Vernon 
 Spring-s Methodist Church, both leading- ex- 
 emplary Christian lives. Mrs. Kellow died 
 at Cresco, July 2nd, 1901, and he followed her 
 to the better land June 3rd, 1904, in his 
 eig-hty-second year, leaving- five children, 
 living- of whom Joseph is now editor of the 
 Cresco Republican, and William, one of 
 Cresco's leading- and successful business men. 
 
 Pour young- Eng-lishmen, Greg-ory, Alexan- 
 der, Chapman and Howard Marshall, sons of 
 General Anthony Marshall, a disting-uished 
 officer of Eng-ineers in the British army, 
 came to Howard County m 1857, and located 
 in Paris township and built and occupied a 
 comfortable home a few miles w^est of Vernon. 
 
78 
 
 General Anthony Marshall was born in Cam- 
 bridg-e, England, in 1791; educated at the 
 Military School at Woolwich, and at theag-eof 
 seventeen entered the Royal service as Sec- 
 ond Lieutenant of Eno-ineers. He served with 
 Wellintrton throug-h the Peninsular war with 
 Spain, and w^as later stationed in Eno-land, 
 Ireland, Canada and at Cape Town, South 
 Africa. General Marshall was much inter- 
 ested in our civil war and a g-reat admirer of 
 General Grant. HediedatPlymouth, Eng-land, 
 in May 1865. The sons who came to Howard 
 County were born, Greg-ory at St. Johns, 
 New Brunswick, in 1832; Alexander at Yar- 
 mouth Isle of Wig-ht, in 1834; Chapman at 
 Dublin, Ireland, in 1838; Howard at Exeter, 
 Eng-land, in 1840. Greg-ory after, leaving- 
 school, was employed in the Eng-lish war 
 office. Alexander went to sea at the ag-e of 
 seventeen, and was a sailor until he came to 
 Howard County. Chapman was educated at 
 Plymouth, went to sea when fifteen, as an 
 apprentice; was four years a sailor, being- sec- 
 ond officer of the ship when he left the sea for 
 life as a landsman. Howard went with his 
 parents to Cork, Ireland, when six months 
 old, and to Cape Town, South Africa, where 
 the family remained nearly four years, Gen- 
 eral Marshall being- on duty there, returning- 
 to Eng-land when relieved. 
 
79 
 
 Alexander returned to Eng-land in 1865. 
 Greg-ory, Chapman and Howard made their 
 homes in Howard County for many years, 
 with interesting- families. All were men of 
 hig-h character, g-ood citizens and successful 
 business men. 
 
 Time and space forbid extension of this list 
 much as we would love to continue it. John 
 M. Field, Rev. P. S. Whitman, Horace Culver, 
 Robert Gilcrest, Nathaniel Niles, A. H. 
 Harris, M. B. Doolittle, and their families 
 were early settlers and valued neig-hbors and 
 friends, and w^e w^ould love to make more 
 detailed notice of them. Of many families no 
 member remains. Of some the living- mem- 
 bers are widelv scattered. 
 
Chapter XI. 
 
 During- the summer of 1858 we built a very 
 comfortable stone house in Vernon Spring's, 
 which was the family home for ten years. 
 
 In the spring- of 1858 I was elected County 
 Superintendent of Schools for Howard Coun- 
 ty, and held the office for three years. There 
 were, at the time of my election, but three 
 school houses in the county, located at For- 
 reston, Lime Spring's and Howard Center. 
 The compensation, salary of the office, was 
 Si. 50 per day for time occupied; increased to 
 $2.00 the following- year, and a fee of $1.00 for 
 examining- teachers, on the last Saturday of 
 each month. As the pay of teachers was very 
 small I did not collect from them any exami- 
 nation fee. Meeting's, prayer and preaching-, 
 were well attended during- the winter of 
 1857-8, and the membership of the little 
 church was more than doubled by spring*. 
 When Brother James Watson joined in Octo- 
 ber 1857, he was a young- sing-le man. Him- 
 self, wife and three g-rown children are now 
 members of the church. Lime Spring's was 
 one of my reg-ular appointments, and in July 
 
 [80] 
 
^J^ 
 
 THE OLD HOME AT VERNON SPRINGS 
 
■ art* 
 
 'h^'f^-' 
 
81 
 
 1858, a church was org-anized with the follow- 
 ing- members: 
 
 Father Buckland and wife, Mrs. M. M. 
 Marsh, Jacob Beam. Father Adams, Jones 
 Adams and Hiram Hearns. 
 
 Howard County and vicinity was our mis- 
 sionary field of labor for more than thirty 
 years. 
 
 Beginning- in April 1861, for four long- 
 anxious years, the subject of absorbing- inter- 
 est and sleepless anxiety with all patriotic 
 citizens of Howard County was the war for 
 the Union. 
 
 The first volunteer from Howard County 
 for the war was my oldest son Charles, who 
 immediately on the President's first call for 
 troops for ninety days, joined a company or- 
 g-anizing- at Decorah in Winneshiek County, 
 which was mustered into the service of the 
 United States for three years as Company 
 D, Third Iowa Infantry. Details of his mili- 
 tary life, are g-iven in a sketch appearing- 
 later in this book. He was twenty years of 
 ag-e at the time of his enlistment. 
 
 In June 1862, my second son, James, then 
 in his seventeenth year, enlisted in the Six- 
 teenth United States Reg-ular Infantry. 
 
 An acute and serious illness impaired his 
 
82 
 
 health to such an extent that he was dis- 
 harg-ed after a few months service. 
 
 In Aiitrust 1862, the Sioux Indians in Min- 
 nesota raided the homes and villages of set- 
 tlers, murdering- and mutilating- men, women 
 and children, and burning- and destroying- 
 a large amount of property. 
 
 Encouraged by and taking advantage of the 
 war of the Rebellion, and incited by agents of 
 the Confederacy, unscrupulous and possibly 
 unauthorized, and brooding- over real and 
 fancied wrong's suffered in dealing- with the 
 Government and its ag-ents; they took the war 
 path and spread terror, death and destruc- 
 tion through the southwestern part of the 
 State. 
 
 Many of their outrages occurred close to 
 the Southern Minnesota border, and thous- 
 ands of people abandoned their homes and 
 fled for their lives into Northern Iowa. Roads 
 from Minnesota were filled with terror-strick- 
 en fug-itives. 
 
 As the field of operation threatened to ex- 
 tend across the border into Iowa, and some 
 families in our immediate neig-hborhood were 
 hastily packing- a few thing's and leaving-; a 
 company was org-anized and mounted for home 
 defense, armed with such weapons, rifles and 
 shot guns as were available, and set out to 
 meet the savag-es. 
 
83 
 
 But prompt action by Governor Ramsey 
 of Minnesota, and General Sible}^ with militia 
 and volunteers, speedily overpowered the 
 Indians, defeating*, capturing- and punishing 
 them. 
 
 About twelve hundred Sioux Indians were 
 engag-ed in the raid. Governor Ramsey esti- 
 mated the loss of life among- settlers at eight 
 hundred. 
 
 Five hundred Indians were captured, tried 
 by a Military Court, and three hundred sen- 
 tenced to suffer death by hanging. Of this 
 number thirty-eight were executed December 
 26, 1862. 
 
 Between twenty and thirty thousand peo- 
 ple had abandoned their homes, and the loss 
 of property was estimated from two and one- 
 half to three million dollars. The Howard 
 County company of home guards did not meet 
 any Indians. 
 
 My son, Charles P. Brown, was at this time 
 Second Sergeant of Company D, Third Regi- 
 ment of Iowa Infantry, and had seen more than 
 a year of active service in the field. Returning 
 to his home on a furlough, he reached Decorah 
 by stage from McGregor on an evening, early in 
 September 1862, when the panic of the Minne- 
 sota settlers was at its height and the town 
 and roads filled with refugees. 
 
84 
 
 Meeting at Decorah a nei<^'-hbc)r, Mr. Hum- 
 phrey, a farmer livintr near the present site of 
 Cresco, in town with a team and g'oing' home 
 that ni^ht, my son accepted an invitation to 
 accompany him on his ni^ht ride home. 
 People were up and alert, lig-hts burning- at 
 every house, and the welcome of a solitary 
 wearer of the blue coat and brass buttons of 
 Uncle Sam's uniform was inspiring-. 
 
 His musket and cartridge box were far 
 away, but the blue uniform represented the 
 war power of the g-overnment, and was looked 
 on as the advance guard of military protection. 
 
 Prom Mr. Humphrey's home, shortly after 
 midnight, he walked about four miles to our 
 place in Vernon. The night was dark, and 
 knowing the excitement and apprehension 
 prevailing, he was on the watch for armed 
 pickets or patrols on the road, and had there 
 been any would have been in more danger 
 from them than from the Indians. He found 
 the roads clear and everything silent as the 
 grave. Reaching home about three o'clock in 
 the morning, he cautiously approached the 
 house, feeling that he was liable to be mis- 
 taken for an Indian and shot without challeng- 
 ing. Knocking carefully at the door to avoid 
 noise or excitement, and getting no re- 
 sponse he was about to go to the barn and find 
 a bed in the hay mow, when an upper window 
 
85 
 
 was raised and a female head in a nig-ht cap, 
 with trembling- tones asked, '*Who is there?" 
 His voice, thoug-h his coming* was entirely 
 unexpected, was recog-nized in the reply, and 
 he was speedily admitted and warmly wel- 
 comed. I was away. His mother, aunt and 
 cousin Julia Brown, and his young-er broth- 
 ers, James, Georg-e and Will, were the occu- 
 pants of the house. 
 
 In 1863 my son Charles applied for an 
 appointment for me as Chaplain of a reg-iment 
 but did not succeed in g-etting- it until near the 
 close of the war. Early in 1865 I went to 
 Memphis, Tennessee, and served as Chaplain 
 of the Eig-hty-eig-hth U. S. C. Infantry and 
 later the Third U. S. C. Artillery for nearly 
 a year. 
 
 In May 1866, I came home from the army, 
 my reg-iment being- mustered out of the ser- 
 vice, and resumed pastoral work in Howard 
 County. 
 
 I was the teacher in the Vernon Spring-s 
 public school several terms, beg-inning- in the 
 fall of 1858, the last term being- that of the 
 winter of 1866-7. 
 
 My pupils, as I recall them now, were 
 Emmet and James Doolittle, Ransom and 
 Emory White; Adelbert, Warren, Charles and 
 Josiah Marsh; Joseph, William and Samuel 
 Kellow; Josephine, Carrie and Sarah Sawyer; 
 
86 
 
 Mary Webster, Luella Bowers, Cora Fields, 
 Marv Tibbets, Catherine and Minnie Harris; 
 Julius Doolittle, Benton Richards, Charles 
 Burdick, GeorjOfe and William C. Brown. 
 
 These are all I can recall of the fifty-seven 
 who attended the last term. The names of 
 those who attended previously, as I now re- 
 member them, are as follows: 
 
 John, James, Abram and Elizabeth Allen; 
 Charles P. and James D. Brown; Sylvester, 
 Marg-aret, Michael, James, Daniel and Jerry 
 Barnes; Adelbert, William and Henry Bowers; 
 Georg-e H., Henry and Isaac Culver; Elmira 
 Clouse, Walter Doolittle, Adeline P. Fall, 
 Arvilla and Sylvia Fall; Ella and Alice Fields, 
 William Fitzg-erald, Frank and Inez Gilcrest, 
 Murray and John Gilcrest, Robert Gilcrest, 
 Silas and Abram Harris, Hattie, Charles and 
 Samantha Hill; John and Ella Irvin, Maria 
 and Mary Kellow, Fannie Moore, Louisa and 
 Emma Niles, Stephen and Lydia Niles, Stone 
 Neff, Marg-aret, William and Nettie Richards; 
 Albert Siddall and Eliza Sawyer. 
 
 Georg-e H. Culver enlisted with Stone Neff 
 in Company "D," Third Iowa Infantry. 
 
 Georg-e served faithfully and bravely and 
 was killed before Atlanta, Georg-ia; when 
 Hood assaulted Sherman's lines July 22, 
 1864. Stone Neff was a g-ood soldier, but was 
 too frail to stand the hardships of army life. 
 
V. 
 
87 
 
 His health failed and he was discharged for 
 disability early in the war. 
 
 I cannot now recall any of my scholars who 
 did not become w^orthy and reputable men and 
 women. 
 
 They w^ere all good and I loved them, and 
 love to recall them now\ 
 
 The McGreg-or Western Railway Company 
 was organized January 19, 1863, and con- 
 struction work begun in March, and the road 
 completed to Monona, 14 miles, in a year. It 
 was extended to Postville and Centralia in 
 1864, to Conover in 1865 and to Cresco in 1866. 
 
 In 1867 a fifty mile gap between Cresco and 
 Austin was built, making a continuous line 
 from McGregor to St. Paul and Minneapolis, 
 which was operated as the Iowa and Minne- 
 sota Division of the Milwaukee and St. Paul 
 
 road. 
 
 My son Charles was employed by the con- 
 tractors, Mather & G reene, from Cresco to Aus- 
 tin in 1867, as time-keeper and accountant, and 
 in August James began work at Cresco with 
 the engineers who located the Iowa and Da- 
 kota Division west from Calmar. 
 
 In the spring of 1868 I went with Mrs. 
 Brown and my younger sons, George and 
 Willie, to Thompson, in Carroll County, Illi- 
 nois, where I was pastor of the York Baptist 
 Church for two years, returning to Iowa in 
 
88 
 
 the sprinn- of 1870, to make a home at Lime 
 Si)ring-s, in Howard County. 
 
 Durinn- this summer we erected a Baptist 
 house of worship, and in 1871, I built a com- 
 fortable, pleasant home for myself and family. 
 
 My sister, Mrs. Ann B. Kelly, made her 
 home with us during the summer of 1871, and 
 a comfortable pleasant room was built espe- 
 cially for her in the new house, but she died 
 before the house was completed, and was 
 buried from the log- cabin built by Esq. Marsh 
 in 1855, in the old town of Lime Springs, 
 which we occupied during- the construction of 
 our new house. 
 
Chapter XII. 
 
 In 1870 and 1871, at the time we made our 
 home at Lime Springs, my sons were em- 
 ployed; Charles at Ottumwa, Iowa, in the 
 Internal Revenue service of the Government; 
 James, George and Will all at work for the 
 Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company; 
 James with the locatinor eno-ineers on the 
 Charles City Branch; Will in the trainmas- 
 ter's office at Minneapolis, and Georg^e a train- 
 man on line between McGreg-or and St. Paul; 
 so, save for visits from the children we occu- 
 pied the home alone. 
 
 With the exception of a year, from the fall 
 of 1875 to October 1876, in central New York, 
 it was our home for nearly twenty years. 
 
 I was not reg'ularly connected with any 
 church as pastor during- much of this time, 
 but was engag'ed in pastoral work at Lime 
 Spring's, and supplying* churches in neig^hbor- 
 ing* towns. 
 
 On the evening- of September 1, 1871, my 
 son George, who was brakeman on a passen- 
 g-er train between St. Paul and McGregor; 
 while coupling the sleeper on the train at St. 
 Paul Junction, was caught between the plat- 
 
 [89] 
 
90 
 
 forms of the sleeper and rear coach, receivino- 
 
 injuries resultinjj- in his death within an hour. 
 
 His ei<J-hteenth birthday occurred on the 
 twenty-ninth of July preceding-. His cheery, 
 affectionate disposition endeared him to all, 
 and his sudden trag-ic death was a dreadful 
 shock and was loner and deeply mourned. 
 
 In the fall of 1875 Mrs. Brown and myself 
 went to New York and remained a year with 
 relatives and old friends and acquaintances in 
 Herkimer and Madison Counties. During- 
 this time I supplied the churches at Russia 
 and Poland in the absence of a reg-ularly in- 
 stalled pastor. We w^ere with my father 
 during- his last illness, at Madison, where he 
 died September 23, 1876, in his eig-hty-seventh 
 year, We returned to Iowa in October and 
 ag-ain located at Lime Spring's, where I re- 
 sumed pastorship of the church. 
 
 In October 1877, I was elected to represent 
 Howard County in the Iowa Legislature and 
 served one term, declining- to be a candidate 
 for re-election. 
 
 During- the session the following- winter I 
 introduced a resolution to amend the State 
 Constitution so as to authorize a majority of 
 a jury in civil cases to bring- in a verdict. It 
 passed the House by a larg-e majority, but was 
 pig-eon-holed in the Senate. 
 
91 
 
 The followino- is a brief of my arg-ument in 
 support of my resolution: 
 
 "Mr. Speaker — The proposed amendment of 
 the Ninth Section, Article 1st, of the Constitution 
 makes no change in our present trial jury system 
 or the rules by which it is governed. It will sim- 
 ply remove the constitutional obstacle in the way 
 of some future legislature if it shall see fit in its 
 wisdom to authorize less than a unanimous ver- 
 dict. (The resolution was amended so as to con- 
 fine it to civil cases.) 
 
 I think the gentleman from Marion (Ex-Govern- 
 or Wm. M. Stone) is mistaken when he says the 
 rule which requires a unanimous verdict came 
 down from the distant ages of the past. In the 
 early history of the jury system the unanimity 
 rule governing verdicts was not known. A major- 
 ity of the jury was competent to deliver a verdict. 
 This was the rule in England for a long series of 
 years. The unanimity rule was the result of 
 gradual changes in the system. It is now a rule 
 peculiar to the English common law. No other 
 nation on the continent of Europe has ever adopt- 
 ed it. 
 
 I offer the following reasons why this unanimity 
 rule governing the verdict of juries should be 
 changed: 
 
 1. The rule is unreasonable. As pertinent and 
 emphatic proof of this proposition, we quote the 
 language of the learned editor of Blackstone's 
 Commentaries, Vol. 2, Book 2, page 375, who 
 says: *The unanimity of twelve men so repug- 
 
02 
 
 nant to all experience of human conduct, passions 
 and understandings could hardly in any age have 
 been introduced into practice by a deliberate act 
 of the legislature.' 
 
 Hence this rule is illegitimate so far as statute 
 law is concerned, too absurd, too unreasonable for 
 any legislative body in any age to have deliberately 
 introduced it into practice. 
 
 It is in fact a come-by-chance, nursed by the 
 English Courts until, with many other absurdities 
 it became a part of her common law. 
 
 2. The rule is utterly inconsistent with and 
 subversive of the very principles which underlie 
 our Republican institutions. 
 
 Introduce this rule of unanimity into our elec- 
 tions, into Congress and all departments of its bus- 
 iness, into our legislative business, into our com- 
 mittee business, how many bills of a general 
 character would be reported and how many bills 
 of a general character would pass and become 
 laws? Introduce this rule into our higher courts, 
 what would be the result? Cases without number 
 never decided. We must decide matters, how- 
 ever weighty and whatever may be the conse- 
 quences, by majorities. That is the fundamental 
 rule of a Republican government, of all Republi- 
 can institutions. Discard this rule and the entire 
 machinery comes to a disastrous standstill. 
 
 3. Its direct and practical tendency is to pro- 
 tract litigation and greatly increase its expense. 
 The truth of this proposition is notoriously obvi- 
 ous; so constantly corroborated by the observa- 
 
93 
 
 tion and experience of everyone, as to render 
 proof or illustration unnecessary. Cases innum- 
 erable have lingered in the courts for years which 
 might have been decided on their first hearing if 
 the verdict of eight or nine intelligent men had 
 been decisive. Finally in the end court expenses 
 and attorneys' fees have eaten up the judgment 
 obtained and impoverished both parties to the 
 contest. 
 
 4. The rule of unanimity puts into the hands of 
 one man the absolute and efficient power of de- 
 feating the ends of justice. It matters not wheth- 
 er that one man is the personification of obstina- 
 cy, stupidity, ignorance, or the most intelligent 
 person in the community. No such power can 
 safely be entrusted to any man. It is despotism 
 on the side of crime and injustice. The unanimity 
 rule has opened a field in which shrewd attorneys 
 have achieved some of their most signal victories, 
 not in the interest of justice and right, but in the 
 interest of injustice, crime and wrong. If the 
 attorney finds there is no merit in his client's 
 case, and no possible hope of obtaining a verdict 
 in his favor, his next object, and to compass it no 
 stone is left unturned, is to divide the jury. A 
 new trial is ordered and the same thing is repeated 
 and the prosecution is worried and worn out and 
 the guilty go free. 
 
 And then if money is to be used to defeat the 
 ends of justice, how much more easily one man 
 can be corrupted than three or four, and the cor- 
 ruption of one man defeats a verdict under the 
 
94 
 
 present rule, as surely as the corruption of a half 
 dozen. 
 
 5. It is a coercive rule, or to use a very ex- 
 pressive word of American coinage, it is a bull- 
 dozing rule. It provides if twelve men do not 
 voluntarily agree on a verdict, to bulldoze them 
 into a verdict. 
 
 There was a time in England when the jury 
 consisted of more than twelve men, and a majority 
 verdict was the rule. It afterwards became the 
 rule that at least twelve of the number must agree 
 and if that number did not agree the jury were 
 reinforced or others added to it until the requisite 
 number twelve was obtained. The number of 
 jurymen was diminished from time to time until it 
 was cut down to twelve, and then commenced the 
 unanimity rule, and about this time the courts, 
 finding their business blocked by the frequent dis- 
 agreement of the jury, found it necessary to resort 
 to coercive measures to enforce agreement and 
 obtain verdicts. The jury was locked up in a 
 room without fire, food, drink or light and for any 
 length of time at the pleasure of the court. The 
 jury was fined if they ate anything without con- 
 sent of the court before finding a verdict, and if 
 the jury did not agree on a verdict by the time the 
 court adjourned and was ready to leave for an- 
 other part of the circuit, they were, by order of 
 the court, hauled around the circuit from town 
 to town in a cart. This same common law bull- 
 dozing rule, except the cart part, has been in full 
 force and virtue in the older states of this country, 
 
95 
 
 and that too, within the recollection of some of the 
 members of the present General Assembly. 
 
 Coercion does not necessarily imply or require 
 physical force, but any influence which impels a 
 person contrary to his calm, unbiased convictions. 
 The barbarous means which the English courts 
 resorted to to enforce unanimity, such as hunger, 
 thirst, cold, darkness and jolting carts over rough 
 roads, may have been set aside, but confinement 
 and other potent influences, coercive in their char- 
 acter, design and effect, have taken their places. 
 
 But the most abhorrent feature of this coercing 
 a verdict is, the jury is first put under the solemni- 
 ties of an oath, which should shield them from all 
 coercive influences in their deliberations and in 
 reaching their conclusions. 
 
 Agreement produced by such influences does not 
 add strength or virtue to the verdict. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said that in the United States 
 nearly all the odious measures so generally resort- 
 ed to in former times to enforce a verdict under the 
 unanimity rule have been done away with. This 
 may be true to a very great extent while the evil 
 consequences of the absurd rule are in full force 
 to defeat the ends of justice and to render litigation 
 long and expensive." 
 
 So long" as our legislative bodies are made 
 up largely of lawyers it can scarcely be hoped 
 that measures looking to simplifying litigation 
 — expediting- and reducing cost — will meet 
 with favor. 
 
06 
 
 The vear 1S77 will Ionic he rememhered as 
 one of serious labor troubles — and in north- 
 ern Iowa as the first of a series of disastrous 
 failures of the spring- wheat crop, which had 
 for years been the main dependence of our 
 farmers. Many of the early settlers lost 
 their farms, <^Mvino- up the strug-crle and ag-ain 
 becoming- pioneers in Dakota, Nebraska and 
 Kansas. 
 
 The wheat crop of that year, up to the time 
 the berry was in the milk, or doug-h stag-e, 
 was very promising-; but at this critical per- 
 iod, very hot weather, with frequent showers, 
 followed by a blazing- sun, cooked and blasted 
 the wheat, utterly destroying- it. 
 
 Seed and labor were lost and the brig-ht 
 hopes of the husbandman blig-hted in a day. 
 
Chapter XIII. 
 
 In 1879 I built a house south of the depot in 
 Lime Spring's, located across the street 
 from my son, James D. Brown, at that time 
 station agfent at Lime Spring-s. This was our 
 last earthly home, and one of the pleasantest 
 we ever had. During- the following- ten 
 years I had no reg-ular charge, but supplied 
 the churches at Cresco, Fort Atkinson, and 
 other places, which were without pastors. 
 
 Mrs. Brown and I spent a good deal of time 
 visiting- our children living- in Ottumwa, Iowa, 
 and Beardstown, Illinois. In September, 
 1882, an epidemic of diphtheria broke out in 
 Lime Springs, and Frances, young-est daug-h- 
 ter of my son James, and Eddie, the only son 
 of my son Willie, whose family was at home 
 on a visit, were among- the early victims of the 
 dread disease. 
 
 Many children in the villag-e and vicinity 
 were smitten with the malady, and almost 
 every case w^as fatal. 
 
 It was an autumn of g-rief and sorrow for 
 our family. 
 
 On September 2, a daug-hter. Bertha Ade- 
 laide, was born to W. C. and Ella H. Brown, 
 
 [97] 
 
08 
 
 and this bcihy ^i'irl was only about a week old 
 when the little boy died. On the day Bertha 
 was born, and in the same house, a dau^-hter 
 was born to Clara Lacey, a sister of Mrs. 
 Brown. 
 
 On June 12, 1887, in this last of our homes, 
 occurred the death of my beloved wife, and 
 we laid her beside the children and ^rand 
 children in the beautiful cemetery located on 
 the hillside where so many of the old neig-h- 
 bors and friends had preceded her. 
 
 The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. 
 J. M. Wedg-ewood. I had many years before, 
 discharg-ed a similar sad duty at the funeral 
 of his wife. 
 
 For nearly fifty years she was my constant 
 companion and helpmeet. 
 
 Her cheerful, sunny disposition made itself 
 felt through all these years, in the lonely 
 cabin on the frontier, or the more comfortable 
 home in the East. Whatever of success at- 
 tended my labors in the ministry, and the 
 success attained and positions of honor and 
 trust g-ained by our sons, are largely due to 
 the loving- care and instruction of the sainted 
 wife and mother. 
 
 For a few^ years after her death I remained 
 at the home in Lime Spring's, keeping- every- 
 thing so far as possible as it was left by her 
 loving hands. 
 
99 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Hewitt, old neig-hbors 
 and kind friends, occupied the house with me. 
 Their daughter, Ella, was the wife of my son, 
 W. C. Brown. 
 
 While it was my home, containing* many 
 thing's recalling- happy days of the past, ^one 
 never to return, much of my time was spent 
 visiting- relatives and friends. 
 
 With advancing- years, the rig-or of our nor- 
 thern Iowa winters, felt more than in young-- 
 er days, led me to make my home with my 
 children living farther south. 
 
 I write these recollections in 1893, at the 
 home of my son, W. C. Brown, at St. Joseph, 
 Missouri, where I have been for a larg-e part 
 of the time during* the last three years- 
 
 My sons and their families have been very 
 kind and considerate, and done much to com- 
 fort and cheer me in my old ag-e and loneliness. 
 I praise God for His g-oodness in sparing- my 
 life, and g-ranting- me the unspeakable joy of 
 attending- six semi-centennial Jubilee Ser- 
 vices, namely: 
 
 The fiftieth anniversaries: 
 
 Of the Baptist Church at Davenport, of 
 which I was one of the first pastors. 
 
 Of the Baptist Church at Danville, Iowa. 
 
 Of the Maquoketa Church, the first one or- 
 g-anized by me west of the Mississippi river. 
 
100 
 
 Of the Davenport Association, which I as- 
 sisted in ort^'-anizing-. 
 
 Of the Baptist Church in Cordova, Illinois. 
 
 Of the Des Moines Baptist Association, the 
 first west of the Mississippi and north of 
 Missouri. 
 
 When I recall the many who were fellow 
 laborers with me in the precious work a half 
 century ag-o, and realize how few remain, my 
 heart is filled wnth g-ratitude to God for His 
 ^reat merc}^ to me. 
 
 I also realize, with cheerful confidence and 
 faith in His loving- kindness, which has fol- 
 lowed me all the days of my life, that the hour 
 of my departure cannot be far away. 
 
 That God will bless and in infinite love and 
 tenderness overshadow and keep the beloved 
 Churches with which I have been connected, 
 and all the Israel of God, is my earnest daily 
 prayer. 
 
 At the request of my children I insert some 
 papers, political and historical, which they 
 deem of interest and worthy of preservation. 
 
 These "recollections" as an autobiog-raphy 
 closed in the fall of 1893, and later events are 
 g-iven by a son. 
 
 Father made his home principally with my 
 brother, W. C. Brown, at St. Joseph, Mo., 
 until January 1, 1896, and then in Chicag-o, 
 where he was cared for w4th loving- kindness. 
 
101 
 
 In the fall of 1898 he came to Ottumwa to 
 make his home with Benjamin P. Brown, his 
 grandson, and remained until his death. Ben 
 and his wife, Laura Kendall, were very pleas- 
 ant young- people; kind, thoug-htful and con- 
 siderate, and their little daug-hter. Prances, 
 was a favorite with father. 
 
 Everything- possible was done for his com- 
 fort and convenience, and he was as contented 
 and happy as anyone could be under similar 
 conditions. 
 
 Nothing- could make g-ood the loss of his 
 loved and life-long companion, and he never 
 ceased to miss and mourn her. 
 
 Early in the year 1900 my brother, W. C. 
 Brown, boug-ht a handsome, well located resi- 
 dence in Ottumwa, expressly for father's use, 
 and it was occupied by Ben and his family for 
 a home for father. 
 
 For more than a year preceding- his death, a 
 capable attendant was employed, g-iving- his 
 entire time to caring- for father and adminis- 
 tering- to his wants. 
 
 He was a remarkably active man for his 
 age, and retained full possession of his fac- 
 ulties to the day of his death. 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 Rev. Charles E. Brown died in Ottumwa, 
 Iowa, at the residence of his g-randson, Ben- 
 
102 
 
 jainin P. Brown, on Tuesday, July 23, 1^)01, 
 in his eig-hty-ninth year, from old ag-e. 
 
 His obituary contained the following" notice: 
 
 "Mr. Brown was a man of more than ordi- 
 nary ability, and began his active life work 
 with a much better education than theaverag-e 
 young man of his time. 
 
 "His choice of a vocation came from a pro- 
 found sense of duty, and he was a faithful, 
 zealous and devoted worker in his calling- 
 until past sixty years of ag-e. In choosing- 
 fields of labor he sought those among- pioneers 
 in the far West: plain, earnest people in the 
 humbler walks of life, and the question of 
 compensation was hardly considered. 
 
 "Had he been ambitious he would have at- 
 tained high rank in the ministry. 
 
 "Sincere, earnest, unselfish and self-sacri- 
 ficing, he was not worldly minded. 
 
 "Clear and decided in his views on all ques- 
 tions of public interest he held and advocated 
 them fearlessly. 
 
 "His ideas of life were serious; but under a 
 sober, thoughtful manner, he had a warm, 
 g-enerous heart, and was ever ready with 
 kindly sympathy and assistance for those in 
 trouble or affliction. 
 
 "Death came in his eighty-ninth year, from 
 a g-radual failing of his vital powders, and the 
 end was peaceful and painless." 
 
MONUMENT IN CEMETERY AT LIME SPRINGS. IOWA. 
 
103 
 
 His remains were laid in the cemetery at 
 Lime Spring's, Iowa, by the side of those of 
 his loved companion, who had g-one before to 
 a better land. 
 
 FrcDices Lyon was born April 15, 1813, at 
 Oppenheim, in Pulton county, New York, the 
 sixth dauofhter of Doctor Benjamin Lyon and 
 Margaret Duncan, his wife. 
 
 On July 5, 1820, her mother died, and on 
 May 26, 1822, her father married again, and 
 died October 24, 1826. 
 
 Doctor Benjamin Lyon was a practicing- 
 physician; educated, capable and skillful in 
 his profession; of high character as a man; 
 leading and influential; loved and respected 
 by neighbors and friends. 
 
 Margaret Duncan, his wife, was a daug-hter 
 of John Duncan, a Scotchman of means and 
 prominence, who came to New York at an 
 early day and located near Schenectady, es- 
 tablishing- a home, whose broad acres were 
 known as the ''Hermitag-e. " 
 
 Panny Lyon's home after her parents' 
 death was for some years before her mar- 
 riag-e, at Little Palls, Herkimer county. New 
 York, with an older sister, Julia, wife of 
 Stephen W. Brown, a leading-, influential and 
 well to do merchant. 
 
104 
 
 Here, h.'Liulsoine, educated, accomplished 
 and winnintf, she was prominent in the ^ay 
 social life of a charmintr circle of bri^rht youn^ 
 people. It was an ideal home. 
 
 Mrs. Stephen W. Brown w^as an exception- 
 ally cajKible, gifted and accomplished woman, 
 and a brilliant social leader. 
 
 Her husband was a g-entleman of the high- 
 est character, popular in business and poli- 
 tics, g-enial, g-enerous and hospitable, with a 
 noble face and commanding- presence, larg-ely 
 interested in trade and manufactures, and for 
 a time ''Ilig-Ji Sherijf of Herkimer county. 
 
 At Little Falls, in the spring- of 1838, oc- 
 curred a revival of relig-ion that attracted 
 widespread interest The meeting-s w^ere 
 conducted by Rev. Phillip Perry Brown, an 
 able, earnest and zealous Baptist minister. 
 
 Georg-e D. Lyon, a successful young- mer- 
 chant of Little Falls, unmarried and making- 
 his home with his sisters, Mrs. Stephen W. 
 Brown and Fanny Lyon, was a member of the 
 Baptist church, and with his sister Fanny, 
 attended the meeting-s. 
 
 Charles Edwin Brown, a son of the presid- 
 ing- minister, a theological student just from 
 the university at Hamilton, young-, zealous, 
 able and enthusiastic in his chosen calling- of 
 the ministry, was present assisting- his father 
 In carrying- on the work. He became a g-ue?t 
 
105 
 
 of Stephen W. Brown's family during- the 
 meeting-, and was cordially received and en- 
 tertained. 
 
 Fanny Lyon was an interested attendant of 
 the revival services, and became a convert. 
 
 The acquaintance of the young- people thus 
 thrown tog-ether, ripened into love, and g-iving- 
 up a brig-ht and promising- future in a worldly 
 way, she became, September 26, 1838, the wife 
 of a minister, possessed of nothing- but 
 health, a g-ood education, ability of a hig-h 
 order, and zeal and sincerity in his calling-. 
 Possibly the extent of the sacrifice was not 
 fully realized. It was a life of toil, trial and 
 self-denying- economy, doing- larg-ely for 
 others, and looking- to the future for its re- 
 ward and compensation. But it was in the 
 line of duty, and its faithful performance 
 broug-ht an approving- conscience. She dis- 
 charg-ed all its duties loyally and well; bore 
 her share of its burdens, and contributed 
 fully to its joys. 
 
 She was a consistent Christian, a devoted, 
 loving- wife and mother, and a model home- 
 maker; always cheerful and hopeful. 
 
 Death came at the home in Lime Spring-s, 
 Iowa, June 12, 1887, after a long- illness, borne 
 with Christian patience, faith and fortitude. 
 
 The children of Rev. Charles E. and Fran- 
 ces Lyon Brown were: 
 
106 
 
 J)r)i/(if}ii)i Perry JiroivJi, l)orn in the Baptist 
 parsonag-e at Norway, Herkimer county, New 
 York, July 30, 1830, and was drowned at 
 Brown's ford in the Ma([uoketa river, near 
 Maquoketa, Iowa, on the afternoon of June 20, 
 1848, when nearly nine years of a«-e. 
 
 He was in many lovable ways a remarkable 
 little fellow, ])ritrht and playful, but thoutrht- 
 ful and considerate, conscientious and of a de- 
 votional turn of mind, unusual for a child. 
 He won and held the warmest love of his par- 
 ents. A most promising- life was cut short 
 by his untimely death. 
 
 His loss was a crushing- blow to his parents, 
 and his mother never ceased to mourn him to 
 the end of her long- life. 
 
 Sketch of Charles Perry Brozvn, published 
 in a ^'Biog-raphical History of Wapello Coun- 
 ty," at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1901. 
 
 "Captain Charles P. Brown was born near 
 Little Palls, Herkimer county, New York, 
 October 30, 1840, the son of Rev. Charles E. 
 and Prances Lyon-Brown. 
 
 "His father was a Baptist minister, a g-rad- 
 uate of Madison University, who came to Iowa 
 in May, 1842, as a Missionary by appointment 
 from the American Baptist Home Mission 
 Society, locating- first at Maquoketa, Jackson 
 county, and the following- fall at Davenport. 
 After nine years of arduous and successful 
 
107 
 
 labor in his calling-, failing- health necessitated 
 his return to New York in May, 1851, where 
 he spent six years in central and western 
 counties, returning to Iowa in July, 1857, to 
 make a home, in Howard county. 
 
 "Captain Brown's mother, a noble Christ- 
 ian woman, and a devoted, loving- wife and 
 mother, was a daughter of Doctor Benjamin 
 Lyon, of Herkimer county. New York, whose 
 wife, Mrs. Brown's mother, was Margaret 
 Duncan, daughter of John Duncan, a promi- 
 nent Scotchman, who left his native land on 
 account of political disturbances, and settled 
 near Schenectady, New York, at an early day. 
 *-The subject of this sketch was educated 
 in the common schools of New York and Iowa, 
 and was a teacher in country district schools 
 in northern Iowa during the winter terms of 
 1859, 1860 and 1861. He was the first volun- 
 teer from Howard county for the Civil war, 
 enlisting- about April 20, 1861, in the Decorah 
 Guards, a Winneshiek county company, which 
 was mustered into the service of the United 
 States as Company D, Third reg-iment, Iowa 
 Volunteer Infantry, at Keokuk, Iowa. The 
 First, Second and Third reg-iments of Iowa 
 Infantry were organized at Keokuk about the 
 same time, all being there together before 
 any left for the field. 
 
 "At the organization of his company, Mr. 
 
108 
 
 Brown was elected third corporal, and in 
 March, 18()2, was promoted to second ser- 
 g-eant. He was made first lieutenant of artil- 
 lery in May, 18()3, and in September, 1864, 
 was appointed captain and assistant adjutant 
 o-eneral of volunteers by President Lincoln, 
 holdintr that position until discharged in Dec- 
 ember, 1865. He served continuously from 
 April 25, 1861, until December 31, 1865, four 
 years and ei^ht months, when he was honor- 
 ably discharofed by order of the War Depart- 
 ment, for the reason that his services were 
 no long-er required. He was on staff duty 
 about four years, as regimental and brig-ade 
 quartermaster, aide-de-camp, and assistant 
 adjutant g-eneral, serving- more than a year 
 with Major General Stephen A. Hurlbut, who 
 commanded the Fourth Division, Army of the 
 Tennessee, at Pittsburg* Landing-, Shiloh and 
 Corinth, and later the Sixteenth Army Corps, 
 and the Department of the Gulf. He was in 
 every battle and campaign in which his com- 
 mand was eng-ag-ed. 
 
 "After leaving- the army. Captain Brown re- 
 turned to his home in Vernon Spring's, How- 
 ard county, Iowa; and was married Aug-ust 30, 
 1866, to Adeline Fall, daug-hter of Rev. Georg-e 
 W. Fall, of Howard county. He came to Ot- 
 tumwa, March 1, 1871, as clerk in the office of 
 General John M. Hedrick, supervisor of 
 
109 
 
 United States internal revenue for a district 
 comprising- eig^ht northwestern states and ter- 
 ritories, and was soon after appointed United 
 States Internal Revenue Ag-ent on the recom- 
 mendation of General liedrick, and served in 
 that capacity until October, 1881, resig-ning- 
 on account of failing- health. The Ottumwa 
 National Bank was then org-anizing- and Cap- 
 tain Brown was oifered and accepted the posi- 
 tion of cashier. In Aug-ust, 1883, he left the 
 bank to become auditor of the coal mining-, 
 railroad and supply companies owned and op- 
 erated by J. C. Osg-ood. This work proving- 
 too arduous, was g-iven up in July, 1884, and 
 for three years he w'as out of business. In 
 the fall of 1887 Mr. Brown org-anized the Ot- 
 tumwa Saving-s Bank, and was its president 
 until Aug-ust, 1895, when the condition of his 
 health obliged him to g-ive up all business for 
 a time. 
 
 '*Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two children liv- 
 ing-: Benjamin P., born at McGreg-or, Iowa, 
 December 11, 1869, and Louise P. born at Ot- 
 tumw^a, Iowa, January 28, 1881, both of whom 
 w^ere educated in the public schools of Ot- 
 tumwa. Benjamin P. went into the retail 
 hardware store of the Harper and Mclntire 
 Company; then Harper, Chambers and Com- 
 pany, in May, 1886, to learn the business. In 
 September, 1888, he began work in the Ot- 
 
no 
 
 tumwa Savini^s Bank; was made assistant 
 cashier in 18*)1, and cashier in August, 1895. 
 He is a popular, capable and successful bank- 
 er." 
 
 JiiDics DcGrush Dnnvii was born in Le- 
 Claire township, Scott county, Iowa, Feb- 
 ruary 9, 1846, in a brick house on the prairie, 
 a few miles west of the Mississippi river and 
 the village of LeClaire. 
 
 The country was new and thinly settled, 
 the nearest neio-hbor being- one-half mile to 
 the south. North, east and west was the 
 boundless prairie, without human habitation 
 in sio-ht. Wolves howledaround thehouseand 
 came almost to our door nearly every nig-ht. 
 Prairie chickens were plentiful; larg-e flocks 
 used to g*ather, and the males strut about and 
 sound their booming- notes in plain sig-ht of, 
 and near the house, and a fat young- hen for a 
 meal was almost as handy to g-et as a fowl 
 from a domestic barn yard. Indians were oc- 
 casional visitors. 
 
 James was a dutiful, obedient boy, of cor- 
 rect and studious habits, a ready learner, and 
 a great reader of books, with a g-ood 
 memory. Considering- his limited opportu- 
 nities, his education w^as better than that of 
 any of his brothers. 
 
 He was a school teacher in country districts 
 in north Iowa a few terms; and in 1867 beg-an 
 
FRANK LOGAN BROWN, 
 
Ill 
 
 work for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway 
 Company with the locating- eng-ineers on the 
 Iowa and Dakota Dixision. Later he was op- 
 erator at various stations on the Iowa and 
 Minnesota Division, and ag-ent at Lime 
 Spring's for about fifteen years. 
 
 He came to the "Burling-ton" road Febru- 
 ary 1, 1889, as ag-ent at Fairfield, and to Ot- 
 tumwa April 1, 1890. 
 
 June 1, 1903, he became traveling- freig-ht 
 ag-ent for the Indiana, Iowa and Illinois Rail- 
 way Company; and in the fall of 1905, g-eneral 
 ag-ent at St. Joseph, Missouri, for the New 
 York Central lines. 
 
 James was always a capable, trusty and 
 faithful worker in all the positions he held. 
 
 In 1862, he enlisted in the Sixteenth United 
 States Reg-ular Infantry, when but sixteen 
 years of ag-e. An acute and serious illness, 
 unfitting- him for service, caused his discharg-e 
 for disability a few^ months later; to his very 
 great disappointment and reg-ret. 
 
 Georg-e Lyon Brozv7i was born in the Bap- 
 tist parsonag-e at Norway, Herkimer county. 
 New York, July 29, 1853. The family home 
 was located at Vernon Spring-s, Howard coun- 
 ty, Iowa, in July 1857. 
 
 Georg-e was an active, wide awake, enter- 
 prising- boy, loving-, considerate and helpful to 
 his mother; of a cheerful, kindly and oblig-ing- 
 
112 
 
 disposition, seldom at variance with his play- 
 mates. 
 
 His first work away from home was as a 
 trainman on the Chicag^o, Milwaukee and St. 
 Paul, between McGrej^-or and Minneapolis, as 
 brakeman on a frei<ifht, and later on a passen- 
 g-er train, beg-in nino- in 1870. He was in- 
 dustrious and trusty, interested and ambi- 
 tious, readily g-aini no- the g-ood will, confidence 
 and respect of his employers, and success 
 and promotion in his life w^ork was a reason- 
 able expectation. 
 
 On the evening- of September 1, 1871, while 
 coupling- the sleeping- car "Minnesota" on the 
 train at St. Paul Junction, he was caught be- 
 tw^een the platforms of the sleeper and the 
 rear coach, number seventy-seven, receiv- 
 ing- injuries resultinor in his death within an 
 hour. 
 
 The railway company's report of the acci- 
 dent, says: 
 
 "Georg-e L. Brown, brakeman, killed on the 
 evening- of September 1, 1871, at about 7:27. 
 Train No. 4, W. M. Bryant, conductor, Eng-ine 
 No. 41, B. H. Lewis, eng-ineer, arrived at St. 
 Paul Junction, when in making- the coupling- 
 between Coach No. 77, and the sleeping- car 
 "Minnesota," he was caug-ht between the 
 coaches. We helped him on the platform, and 
 put him on train No. 25 for Minneapolis. He 
 
REV. GEO. W. FALL. 
 
MISS ADELINE P. FALL, AUG. 1866. 
 MRS. CHAS. P. BROWN. 1871. CHAS. P, BROWN, 1863. 
 
LOUISE EDITH 
 
 FRANCES BEN 
 
 CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. CHAS. P. BROWN 
 
JAMES D. BROWN. 
 
MRS. JAMES D. BROWN. 
 
GEORGE E. BROWN AND WIFE. 
 
MISS VINNIE FRANCES BROWN 
 
Il 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 r 
 
 
 ^H 
 
 ■b>, 
 
 
 ^H 
 
 ^^^^ll« 
 
 ^4 
 
 Ml 
 
 VINNIE F. BROWN. GEORGE E. BROWN. 
 
 FRANCES MARGARET BROWN. FRANK LOGAN BROWN. 
 
 CHILDREN OF JAMES D. AND ELLA F. BROWN, 
 
VINNIE FRANK GEORGE 
 
 CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES D. BROWN 
 
C. C. HEWITT 
 

 MRS. C. C. HEWITT 
 
WILLIAM C. BROWN 
 
MRS. WILLIAM C. BROWN 
 
MISS MARGARET HEDDENS BROWN 
 
MARGARET BROWN 
 
MARGARET AND BERTHA BROWN 
 
DR. FRANK E. PIERCE 
 
MRS. FRANK E. PIERCE 
 
V 
 
 BERTHA BROWN. 
 

 DR. KELLOGG SPEED 
 
MRS. KELLOGG SPEED. 
 
MARGARET 
 
 BERTHA GEORGIA 
 
 CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. W. C. BROWN 
 
MISS BERTHA BROWN SPEED 
 
JOHN HENRY PIERCE. 
 
BERTHA BROWN MRS. F. E. PIERCE 
 
 WILLIAM BROWN PIERCE 
 
MRS. BERTHA BROWN SPEED 
 AND DAUGHTER 
 
113 
 
 died on train 25, in coach No. 24, about fifteen 
 minutes after the accident occurred. 
 
 The coaches were backed up once and he 
 didn't make the couplinof, and sig-naled the 
 eng-ineer to g-o ahead and back up ag-ain. 
 
 When the coaches came tog-ether, the draft 
 irons slipped by, and caug-ht him between the 
 platforms. He had made the same coupling- 
 repeatedly, and thoug-ht he could do it then." 
 
 This extract is from the report of Con- 
 ductor Bryant to the company. 
 
 Georg-e made friends of all with whom he 
 was associated, and his trag-ic and untimely 
 death was a dreadful shock, and was long- and 
 deeply mourned by his family and friends. 
 
 William Carlos Brown, (and his twin broth- 
 er Georg-e L.) was born at the Baptist parson- 
 ag-e in the little town of Norway, in Herkimer 
 county, New York, on the 2^Hh day of July, 
 1853, on the southern border of the Great 
 North Woods, the Adirondack Wilderness. 
 
 For the ensuing- four years the parental 
 home was in central and western New York; 
 in Norw^ay, until September, 1854; then in 
 Penner, Madison county, until May, 1856; then 
 in Gaines and Murray, Orleans county, until 
 July, 1857, when it was removed to Iowa and 
 established at Vernon Spring-s. in Howard 
 county. 
 
114 
 
 vVside fioiii home instruction, his education 
 was acijuired in common schools. 
 
 The l)Ovs were inse])arable com])anions, 
 never havintr any serious differences or mis- 
 understandino;s. They were more active, en- 
 terprisintr and mischievous than the averag^e 
 l^ovs, and at the same time, dutiful, obedient 
 and helpful about home, and affectionate and 
 considerate to their mother. 
 
 Will was especially devoted to his mother, 
 and had a way of demon strati no- his affection, 
 always dear to a mother's heart, that won her 
 warmest love. 
 
 She was very proud of her twin boys, and 
 devotedly attached to them; and they were 
 exceptionally bri<^-ht and interesting- little 
 fellow^s. 
 
 As soon as they were able to be useful, they 
 cheerfully bore their share of the burden of a 
 home, where means w^ere limited, and a mod- 
 est living- had to be secured by industry and 
 economy; and were always ready to add to the 
 family comfort and income by earning- some- 
 thing- whenever an opportunity presented. 
 
 W. C. Brown's railroad life and work beg-an 
 in the little town of Thompson, Illinois, where, 
 in 1868 and 18()9, he was employed wooding- 
 eng-ines; and later on the section on the old 
 Western Union, now^ a part of the Chicag-o, 
 Milwaukee and St. Paul system. 
 
115 
 
 During" the time in this employment, he de- 
 voted his evenings to learning- telegraphy, and 
 in the spring- of 1870, became operator at 
 Charles City, on the Iowa and Dakota Division 
 of the Milwaukee and St. Paul road; was oper- 
 ator at various stations on the line in Iowa 
 and Minnesota, until the spring- of 1871, when 
 he w^as made nig-ht operator in the Train Dis- 
 patcher's office at Minneapolis. 
 
 In June, 1872, he went to the Iowa Division 
 of the Illinois Central road as train dispatcher 
 at Waterloo; and in March, 1875, to Wilton 
 Junction as dispatcher for the Chicag-o, Rock 
 Island and Pacific Railway until July 1, 1876, 
 when he accepted a similar position on the 
 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad at 
 Ottumwa. 
 
 For twenty-five years, from July 1, 1876,^ 
 until June 30, 1901, he was connected with the 
 "Burlington." 
 
 He reported for duty at Ottumwa, Iowa, go- 
 ingf to Burlington in a fortnig-ht; was dis- 
 patcher at Burling-ton from July, 1876, until 
 January 1, 1880. 
 
 Chief Dispatcher, St. Louis Division, at 
 Beardstown, Illinois, January 1, 1880, to Jan- 
 uary, 1881. 
 
 Trainmaster, St. Louis Division, at Beards- 
 town, January, 1881 to July, 1884. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent, St. Louis Divi- 
 
IH) 
 
 sion, at BL'.'irdstown, July, 18S4, to January 
 1, 1887. 
 
 Superintendent, Iowa lines, at Burlin^^ton, 
 January 1, 1887, to Auo-ust, 1890. 
 
 General Manag-er of the Missouri lines of 
 the Burlington System, Aug-ust, 1890, to Jan- 
 uary 1, 189G, with headquarters at St. Joseph, 
 Missouri. 
 
 General Manao-er, Chica^fo, Burlin^fton and 
 Quincy Railroad, at Chica.o-o, January 1, 1896, 
 to June 30, 1901. 
 
 His connection with the New York Central 
 beo-an July 1, 1901; when he went to Cleveland, 
 as vice president and g-eneral manag-er of the 
 Lake Shore and Michig-an Southern, and Lake 
 Erie and Western Railways. 
 
 In February, 1902, he w^as made vice presi- 
 dent of the New York Central and Hudson 
 River Railroad. In February, 1905, oper- 
 ating- vice president: and on June 1, 1906, sen- 
 ior vice president of the New York Central 
 Lines, comprising-. 
 
 The New York Central and Hudson River, 
 Lake Shore and Michig-an Southern, 
 Michig-an Central, 
 West Shore, 
 
 Lake Erie and Western, 
 New York and Ottawa, 
 
 Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, 
 Rutland, 
 
117 
 
 Cleveland, Chicag-o, Cincinnati and St. Louis, 
 Lake Erie, Alliance and Wheeling-, and 
 The Chicag-o, Indiana and Southern. 
 About twelve thousand miles of the finest 
 and most important railway system on earth. 
 The Ottumwa Courier, referring- to his pro- 
 motion to the position of g-eneral manag-er of 
 the Burling-ton, said: 
 
 "There are a few especial reasons for Gen- 
 eral Manag-er Brown's success. He took what- 
 ever duties were assig-ned to him, and g-ave 
 Ihem his very best effort. He never scorned 
 any task, however humble, the drudgery of 
 which would have caused other men to resig-n. 
 "His methods have always been clean and 
 honest, and his treatment of the public and 
 subordinates, has been based on exactly the 
 same candor and courtesy accorded to his su- 
 periors in rank. The story of his life reads 
 like a romance, and in it there is the g-reatest 
 incentive to youth for hard work, intellig-ent 
 effort and clean methods in whatever they 
 undertake." 
 
 Referring- to his appointment as vice presi- 
 dent of the New York Central and Hudson 
 River road in February, 1902; the New York 
 World, in a first pag-e article, said: 
 
 "Anew railroad wizard, takes place of g-reat 
 power and prominence here. 
 
 "A radical chancre in the manag-ement of the 
 
118 
 
 New York Central was made yesterday, by 
 the election of William C. Brown, now vice 
 president of the Lake Shore, as vice presi- 
 dent of the Central, with new duties on a 
 larg-er scale, than any New York Central Rail- 
 road official has ever yet assumed. 
 
 "Mr. Brown becomes the active directing- 
 and responsible head of the combined trans- 
 portation, eng-ineerin^, equipment, and me- 
 chanical departments of the road. 
 
 ''His position will be of more individual im- 
 portance and responsibility, than any that has 
 yet existed on any g-reat railroad system. 
 
 "Mr. Brown, who now becomes one of the 
 foremost men in the eastern railway field, has 
 worked his way up from the very bottom. 
 
 "He will retain the vice presidency of the 
 Lake Shore, and Lake Erie and Western." 
 
 With executive and administrative ability 
 of the highest order; he combines untiring- in- 
 dustry, patience and g-ood nature that nothing- 
 can ruffle or disturb; unswerving- fidelity to 
 his duties, and the rare and priceless faculty 
 of g-aining- and keeping- the g-ood will of pat- 
 rons; and the love, respect and loyal support 
 of employes and subordinates of the roads. 
 
 Modest, unassuming-, g-enial and approach- 
 able, with no pride of position or power, he is 
 a remarkable man of a marvelous ag-e. 
 
 Roads under his management are notably 
 
119 
 
 free from accidents and labor troubles. 
 
 Mr. Brown is domestic in his tastes, and 
 his home life is ideal. 
 
 He was married at Lime Spring-s, Howard 
 county, Iowa, June 3, 1874; to Miss Mary Ella 
 Hewitt, daug-hter of C. C. and Mary Chees- 
 boro Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt was a hardware 
 merchant, a hig-hly respected, successful bus- 
 iness man. It is no flattery to say that Miss 
 Hewitt was the belle and beauty of the little 
 town, and that she is a model wife, mother 
 and home-maker. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Brown have three daug-hters, 
 of w^hom any parents may be proud. Two 
 are married and have handsome homes near 
 their parents. 
 
 Georg"ia, the eldest; refined, educated and 
 accomplished, is the wife of Dr. Prank Ellis 
 Pierce, a rising- young* physician, and a very 
 pleasant g-entleman, son of Hon. John H. 
 Pierce, of Kewanee, Illinois; a leading- manu- 
 facturer and prominent in public affairs of 
 the state. 
 
 Bertha, a charming- little woman; fair-faced, 
 brig-ht-eyed, lovable and winning, is the wife 
 of Dr. Kellog-g- Speed; just entering- upon a 
 promising- career in his profession. 
 
 Marg'aret, the young-est, at home; trim, 
 compact, g-raceful and vivacious; a very brig-ht 
 little miss of sixteen, is a fine equestrian. 
 
120 
 
 and the comrade, companion and pride of her 
 father. 
 
 He has a ho)ish love for all ^ood kinds of 
 fun, appreciates and enjoys a joke, and knows 
 how to make one; likes a farm, and fine stock, 
 horses and cattle, of which he is a judg-e and 
 always has a goodly number. 
 
 At home and off duty he is a generous host, 
 a welcome t^-uest, a g^enial companion, and the 
 center of a fascinating* circle of friends. 
 
 Since his appointment as senior vice pres- 
 ident of the New York Central lines, his head- 
 quarters, office and home are located in New^ 
 York City. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED JULY 4, 1845, AT LE CLAIR, SCOTT 
 COUNTY, TERRITORY OF IOWA. 
 
 "The document which has just been read in 
 our hearing- is called 'The Declaration of In- 
 dependence.' The committee appointed by 
 the Continental Congress assembled in Inde- 
 pendence Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, to 
 draw up that declaration, consisted of Thomas 
 Jefferson, of Virginia; John Adams, of Massa- 
 chusetts; Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylva- 
 nia; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; and Rob- 
 ert R. Livingston, of New York. Jefferson 
 was the author. The vote was taken on its 
 adoption July 4, 1776, at about mid-day; a time 
 of intense solemnity and interest. The decla- 
 ration was read at the head of each brigade of 
 the army; it was read from the pulpit; it was 
 read in leg-islative halls, and at the corners of 
 
 [121] 
 
122 
 
 the streets, and ev^erywhere met with a warm 
 response from the American people. 
 
 In that noblest of all state papers ever 
 issued from a le^^islative body, is this memor- 
 able lang^uagfe, developing* principles most no- 
 ble and o-lorious, cherished with the warm- 
 est and most ardent affection by every 
 true American heart. Principles upon which 
 the superstructure of our g'overnment was 
 reared and upon which it still rests, viz: "We 
 hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
 men are created equal; that they are endowed 
 by their Creator with certain unalienable 
 rig"hts; that among" these are life, liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these 
 rig"hts g-overnments are instituted among- men, 
 deriving their just powers from the consent of 
 the governed." A similar sentiment was ex- 
 pressed many centuries before the Declara- 
 tion of Independence came into being-, and 
 comes to us under the sanction of Divine reve- 
 lation in these words, "He hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men to dwell on all the 
 face of the earth." 
 
 The Bible and the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, know no royal blood, no ordinate and 
 subordinate conditions of men as they come 
 from the hand^of their Creator. One declares 
 that "of one blood all men were made," the 
 other that "all men are created equal and en- 
 
123 
 
 dowed by the Creator with certain inalien- 
 able rig-hts, among- which is that of liberty." 
 
 In the first place let us g-lance briefly at the 
 nature of personal liberty. 
 
 Very incorrect and absurd notions are en- 
 tertained in reference to personal liberty, 
 some supposing- it to consist in every person 
 doing- what he pleases without reg-ard for 
 the rig-hts, interests and happiness of others; 
 without reg-ard for society. While others 
 think that personal liberty is sufficiently ample 
 if their fellow men have the liberty to think 
 only as they think, and to do what they choose 
 to have them do. Both of these views are rad- 
 ically wrong- and equally destructive of every 
 principal of true personal liberty. 
 
 "Every human being-," says a philosopher 
 of our own country, **is by his constitution a 
 separate distinct and complete system, 
 adapted to all the purposes of self government 
 and responsible to God for the manner in 
 which his powers are employed." 
 
 Every person has a perfect rig-ht, so far as 
 his fellow men are concerned, to use his lib- 
 erty as he pleases; provided, always, he does 
 not use it to the injury of his neig-hbors; he 
 may g-o where he pleases and when he pleases 
 and come when he will; he may work, play or 
 be idle, just as suits him best. If he sur- 
 
124 
 
 renders anv of his personal ri<»"hts it must he 
 with his uncoerced consent. 
 
 As, for instance, in the formation and whole- 
 some provisions of society, the members 
 mutually and on the' principles of reciprocity 
 surrender some of their personal rig-hts to 
 society which is essential to its very exist- 
 ence. 1. The person transfers to society 
 the ri^^ht of self-protection. 2. He trans- 
 fers the riu'ht to redress his wrono-s or in- 
 juries. 
 
 On the other hand, society eng-ag-es to pro- 
 tect him in the innocent enjoyment of his 
 rig-hts and redress his wrong's. Hence rt 
 is wrong- for a person or persons to take re- 
 dress into their own hands. Should such a 
 course be g'enerally adopted society would 
 soon come to an end. If, for any cause, so- 
 ciety fails to perform its part of the contract, 
 it is the duty and privileg^e of the person to 
 fall back on his origfinal rig-hts and protect 
 himself and redress his own wrong-s. Such 
 cases have occurred in this w^estern country, 
 where horse thieves, counterfeiters and rob- 
 bers have leag'ued tog-ether for protection in 
 their intolerable depredations, so that the 
 ends of law and justice were constantly and 
 effectually defied. Under such circumstan- 
 ces it is rig-ht for the outrag-ed neig-hbors 
 to do as they sometimes have done — take re- 
 
125 
 
 dress into their own hands; not, however, un- 
 til they have found by actual trial, that the 
 laws cannot, or will not, protect them. 
 
 Personal liberty may be violated: 1. In 
 cases where one person assumes control of 
 the actions, physical and intellectual, of an- 
 other. This point is so clear as to need no 
 illustration. 2. Society may violate personal 
 liberty by imprisonment, or by reducing- to 
 vassalage, where no crime has been commit- 
 ted; or where crime has been committed, 
 by inflicting- punishment without giving the 
 accused a fair trial; or by passing laws dis- 
 franchising a person or persons; or placing 
 them under civil or political disabilities; or 
 by restricting or coercing their religious faith 
 and forms of worship. 
 
 Each and every person, so far as his fellow 
 men are concerned, has a perfect right to be- 
 lieve what he has a mind to; to w^orship what, 
 and in w^hat form he is disposed to; provided, 
 he leaves the same right to others unimpaired, 
 and none must molest or make him afraid. 
 To connect church with state, or establish a 
 specified form of religion by law is a gross 
 and palpable violation of the most sacred 
 rights of men and should be sternly and per- 
 sistently resisted. 
 
 To secure these rights the Declaration tells 
 us governments are instituted among men, 
 
12(. 
 
 dcriviiij^- tlu'ir just ])()\VL'rs from the consent 
 of the <roverned; whenever a form of jrovern- 
 ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
 the rio-ht of the people to alter or abolish it 
 and to institute a new g-overnment, laying its 
 foundation on such principles and or^anizin^ 
 its ]iower in such forms as to them shall seem 
 most likely to effect their safety and happiness. 
 
 These, we repeat, are the g-lorious prin- 
 ciples upon which the constitution of our g-ov- 
 ernment was formed. Our law^ makers are 
 the servants of the people; agents appointed 
 by the people. The executive is the servant 
 of the people. He occupies the executive 
 chair because the people put him there. If 
 they think best, he is left out and another is 
 elected to fill his place. The people are the 
 sovereigns of the land. 
 
 In no country are the principles of liberty 
 so well understood, so well defined, so amply 
 enjoyed as in our own highly favored republic. 
 And it devolves upon us, fellow citizens, to 
 maintain and guard most scrupulously these 
 principles and transmit them, to cheer and 
 bless those who shall occupy our places in 
 generations yet to come. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the begin- 
 ning, the gradual development and consum- 
 mation of those principles of liberty we now 
 enjoy. There was first the dawning, then the 
 
127 
 
 twilig-ht then the meridian blaze of a g^lorious 
 day. Great principles, either of physics or 
 morals, political economy or human rig-hts 
 and human liberty are not developed and 
 broug-ht to perfection at once, but are the 
 work of time. Old and venerated forms, cus- 
 toms and institutions must be removed; long* 
 standing- and deep rooted prejudices must be 
 overcome; new and startling- ideas and princi- 
 ples introduced. 
 
 When Patrick Henry made his impassioned 
 appeal in behalf of American freedom before 
 the House of Burg-esses of Virg-inia, in which 
 occurs that immortal exclamation, '*Give me 
 liberty or give me death," the eloquent speech 
 was g-reeted with cries of "Treason" from 
 different parts of the hall. 
 
 The resolution offered in the Continental 
 Cong-ress, "That these united colonies are, 
 and of rig-ht oug-ht to be free and independent 
 states; that they are absolved from all alleg-- 
 iance to the British crown," etc., was treason. 
 
 Before America w-as discovered, the idea 
 that the people had some rig-hts beg-an to be 
 entertained. It was the violation of these im- 
 perfectly conceived rig-hts, the intolerable op- 
 pression, political and relig-ious, that drove 
 the first settlers of America from their homes 
 in the Old World, from friends and every en- 
 deared association, to find a resting- place, an 
 
128 
 
 asvliini of the perseciiti'd and oppressed in a 
 far off wilderness country, inhabitated by 
 beasts of prey and sava<re tribes; where they 
 were exposed to hardships and sufferings of 
 the most appallinj^*- character, for which, how- 
 ever, they felt themselves amply compensated 
 by the sweets of liberty enjoyed in their new 
 homes. 
 
 The following- indig-nant reply of Colonel 
 Barre to Charles Townsend in the British 
 Parliament in the days of the American Rev- 
 olution, contains the truth. Referring- to the 
 American colonies, he says, "Children planted 
 by your care!" "No, your oppression planted 
 them in America; they fled from your tyranny 
 into a then uncultivated land, where they were 
 exposed to all the hardships to which human 
 nature is liable, and among- others, to the cru- 
 elties of a savag-e foe. And yet, actuated by 
 principles of true Eng-lish liberty, they met 
 all these hardships with pleasure." The 
 principles of liberty were broug-ht by the 
 Pilg-rims to the New World, in an imper- 
 fectly conceived, crude and unformed state. 
 
 Monarchy had no motive to emig-rate to the 
 wilds of America; priestcraft did not come; 
 they were present only in shadow. By the 
 steadfast attractions of interest, monarchy 
 and priestcraft were retained in the Old 
 World. To the forests of America came a 
 
129 
 
 free people; to the forests of America relig-ion 
 came as a companion to cheer and comfort in 
 the midst of trials and snfFerino-s. It is true 
 the principles of liberty were but imperfectly 
 developed and understood by the Pilgrim 
 fathers. Their views of religious liberty 
 were less correct than those of civil liberty. 
 They supposed the people ought to be com- 
 pelled to go to meeting by civil law; that the 
 institutions of the Gospel should be supported 
 by a legalized tax upon the people, and that 
 this tax should go to support a particular 
 church and denomination, and that orthodoxy 
 should be looked after and protected by the 
 civil magistrates and heresy severly punished 
 by the officers of justice. 
 
 It was for opposing these relics of tyranny 
 and oppression that Roger Williams was ban- 
 ished from the colony of Massachusetts in the 
 dead of a New England winter. For fourteen 
 weeks he was sorely tossed in a bitter season, 
 not knowing what bed or bread did mean. 
 Often in a stormy night he had neither fire, 
 food or company; often he wandered without a 
 guide and had no shelter but a hollow tree. 
 But he was not without friends The same 
 scrupulous respect for the rights of others, 
 which led him to defend the freedom of con- 
 science, made him the friend and champion 
 of the Indians, and thus secured their most 
 
130 
 
 cordial attachment. Williams had often been 
 the welcome ^uest of the neitj;-hborincr chiefs 
 before his exile; and now when he came, in 
 winter, a lone wanderer from oppression, to 
 the cabin of the chief of Pokanoket he was 
 welcomed by Massasoit, and the barbarous 
 heart of Canonicus, the chief of the Narra- 
 g-ansetts, loved him, as expressed in the lan- 
 g-uaofe of the times, "as his son to the last 
 g-asp." 
 
 The place where he finally fixed his habita- 
 tion to express his o-ratitude for, and his con- 
 fidence in the protection and mercies of God, 
 he called Providence. "I desire," said he, 
 "it mig-ht be for a shelter for persons dis- 
 tressed for conscience." 
 
 No one, said Williams, should be compelled 
 to w^orship, or maintain a worship a,«-ainst his 
 own consent. 
 
 "What!" exclaimed his antag-onist, amazed 
 at his strang-e tenents, "Is not the laborer 
 worthy of his hire?" "Yes, from them that 
 hire him. " 
 
 Williams asserted that the magistrates are 
 but the agents of the people, or their trustees 
 on whom no spiritual power could be con- 
 ferred, since conscience belong-s to the indi- 
 vidual and is not the property of the body 
 politic. The magistrates were selected ex- 
 clusively from the members of the church ac- 
 
131 
 
 cording- to law. Williams contended that with 
 equal propriety a doctor of physics or a pilot 
 should be selected for his skill in theolog-y or 
 standing- in the church. 
 
 Another champion for liberty in those early 
 times was William Penn, the pioneer of the 
 State that bears his name. As an expression 
 and memorial of the principles and feeling's 
 he cherished, and, so far as he could, infused 
 into those around him, he named the city 
 which he founded, Philadelphia, or the City 
 of Brotherly Love. 
 
 In an address to the people of the colony, 
 he expressed his opinion of liberty and what 
 the people mig-ht expect. "I hope," says 
 Penn, "you will not be troubled at your 
 chang-e and the king-'s choice, for you are now 
 fixed at the mercy of no g-overnor who comes 
 to make his fortune g-reat. You shall be g-ov- 
 erned by laws of your own making- and live a 
 free, and if you will, a sober and industrious 
 people. I shall not usurp the rig-ht of any or 
 oppress his person." 
 
 Speaking- of his colony, he says, "A free 
 colony for all mankind." 
 
 This spirit of liberty broug-ht by the early 
 settlers to the New World was cherished and 
 increased until it lig-hted up a torch that made 
 tyranny, despotism and oppression quail and 
 hasten from the land of freedom. 
 
132 
 
 But wc ]):iss to those scciu's more closely 
 connected with the Revolution. For more 
 than one hundred yeiirs after the first settle- 
 ment of the ^American colonies, the British 
 ofovernment manifested but little interest in 
 their prosperity or welfare, althoui;-h the col- 
 onies were continually harassed by hostile 
 Indian tribes, their houses burned, their 
 farms pillao-ed and laid w^aste, their families 
 butchered or carried into barbarous and hope- 
 less captivity. When the colonies, by perse- 
 vering industry, laboring- under every disad- 
 vantage, arrived at a state of prosperity and 
 importance that attracted the attention of 
 European governments, then the insatiable 
 avarice of the British Parliament caused it to 
 manifest much professed interest in the pros- 
 perity of the American colonies, but this con- 
 cern was purely selfish as the sequel clearly 
 proved. 
 
 The language of Colonel Barre in reply to 
 Townsend on this point is most eloquent and 
 just. "They nourished by your indulgence! 
 No. Thev grew by your neglect. When you 
 began to care for them, that care was exer- 
 cised in sending persons to rule over them, to 
 spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their 
 actions and to prey upon their substance." 
 
 The oppressive measures of the British 
 Parliament which excited resistance and 
 
133 
 
 formed the spirit of liberty in the American 
 people commenced as far back as 1664. Par- 
 liament reg-arded the people of the colonies as 
 an inferior g-rade of his Majesty's subjects, 
 dependent upon his will, and to be made at all 
 hazard subservient to the ag-g-randizement of 
 the British crown. Parliament, by certain 
 leo-islative acts, confined the American trade 
 almost exclusively to the mother country. To 
 benefit her own citizens the government pro- 
 hibited in many instances the establishment 
 of manufactories in the colonies. These op- 
 pressive and unjust restrictions and prohi- 
 bitions were in their effect most prejudicial 
 to the interest and welfare of New Eng-land, 
 as the natural sterility of the soil offered but 
 poor inducements to ag-ricultural pursuits. 
 
 Next a law was passed imposing- duties on 
 certain articles of merchandise to be paid in 
 the colonial ports. This was done to extort 
 revenue from the people of the colonies for 
 support of the home government. 
 
 Soon followed the infamous Stamp Act, by 
 which the people were compelled to use 
 stamped papers furnished by the government, 
 for which they were oblig-ed to pay an ex- 
 horbitant price. All deeds, contracts and the 
 like not written on this stamped paper, were 
 null and void. Further, a law was passed 
 providing for the trial and punishment of any 
 
134 
 
 violation ol tln'su unjust and oppressive en- 
 actments, without juries — l)y jud<jfes entirely 
 dependent on the crown. 
 
 It was on the passa<^e of the Stamp Act that 
 Franklin, who was at the time in London, 
 wrote home to Mr. Thompson, an ardent 
 friend of liberty in the city of Philadelphia — 
 "The sun of liberty is set. You must lig-ht 
 the candles of industry and economy." "Be 
 assured," was the reply, "we shall lig'ht up 
 torches of quite another sort." 
 
 The colonies remonstrated and petitioned 
 against these acts of injustice in respectful 
 yet most decided lang-uag-e, but to very little 
 effect. However, at the instance of the cele-. 
 brated Pitt, the Stamp Act was repealed. 
 Other odious laws were left in full force. 
 
 Then a law was passed imposing- a tax on 
 glass and teas taken to America. The people 
 became convinced that it was the settled pur- 
 pose of the British government to tax them, 
 and to which they must submit and become 
 the vassals of England, or resist unto blood 
 these aggressions upon their rights. Little 
 time was required to decide the momentous 
 question. "Liberty or death," was the re- 
 sponse. So ardently were the people attached 
 to liberty and so resolute in resisting the 
 steady encroachments of injustice and tyran- 
 ny, all, rich and poor, young and old, men and 
 
135 
 
 women, abandoned the use of tea entirely, and 
 swept the beverage from their tables. About 
 this time a ship arrived in Boston harbor, 
 f reig-hted with tea. The citizens at once g-ave 
 the captain to understand that he conld quiet- 
 ly leave the harbor with his vessel and its con- 
 tents, provided he set sail within a specified 
 time. Not heeding- this admonition, about 
 twenty persons, disg-uised as Mohawk In- 
 dians, boarded the ship and, protected by the 
 citizens, broke open three hundred and forty- 
 two boxes of tea and poured the contents into 
 
 the sea. 
 
 This act highly exasperated the British 
 Parliament and their object now w^as to in- 
 flict punishment upon their refractory sub- 
 jects. Various and oppressive measures were 
 resorted to, to subdue the rebellious, but the 
 only effect, so far as the people of the colonies 
 were concerned, was to extend and fan the 
 flame of liberty and consolidate the spirit of 
 resistance, and streng-then the determination 
 to resist unto blood and death these ag-g-res- 
 sions of the home g-overnment. 
 
 The 19th of April, 1775, is memorable in 
 the annals of the long- strug-g-le for independ- 
 ence as being- the day upon which the first 
 battle was foug-ht at Lexing-ton, between the 
 British and Americans. On the w^hole the re- 
 sult was in favor of freedom. The news 
 
13() 
 
 s])re.'ul rapidh throiij^h the countrx'; peo- 
 ])le were e\ erxwhere intensely excited; the 
 fiirnier left his ])1()\\, the mechanic his 
 tools, tiie la\v\er his hooks, the merchant 
 his j^-oods, and hastened to the scene of action. 
 Thus commenced the stru<^ofle which lasted 
 for seven lonof years, attended by hardships, 
 privations, snfferino- and bloodshed, of which 
 we can have but faint conception, and which 
 ended only when Great Britain declared to 
 the world, America is free. 
 
 Soon followed the battle of Bunker Hill, in 
 which the enemy, thou^'h with double the 
 numbers of men, were twice repulsed with 
 dreadful lo-ss and only succeeded in drivino- 
 the Americans from their post when ammuni- 
 tion was exhausted and nothing- left by which 
 to defend themselves but empty muskets. 
 Over one thousand of His Majesty's troops 
 were dead and wounded on the field. The 
 American loss was not half that number. 
 
 The l)attles of Saratog-a and Yorktown were 
 the most decisive during- the war in bring-ing- 
 about the g-rand result — the independence of 
 America and the g-lorious liberty we now en- 
 joy. 'At Saratog-a, Burgoyne, the British g-en- 
 eral, surrendered with his entire army to 
 General Gates and his noble band of patriots. 
 This occurred in October, 1777. 
 
 In October, 1781, the battle of Yorktown 
 
137 
 
 was foug-ht which resulted in the surrender of 
 the British fleet and the array of Lord Corn- 
 wallis, and terminated the war. 
 
 The g-lorious intelligence flew on the wing's 
 of the wind. So great was the joy that some 
 lost their reason, and one, a good patriot in 
 the city of Philadelphia, expired. 
 
 You will now briefly notice the character, 
 the kind of people the men and women en- 
 gaged in the Revolutionary struggle. It 
 would be superfluous to say they were the 
 friends of Freedom. The struggle was not 
 despotism against despotism; not to cast off 
 one form of tyranny for the sake of another, 
 but the struggle was between despotism and 
 liberty. No sacrifice was too great, no suffer- 
 ing too appalling to be endured for Freedom. 
 Wives said to husbands, go; mothers said to 
 their sons, go and fight the battles of God and 
 your countr^^ Sisters encouraged brothers 
 as they were leaving home for the army in the 
 most heroic exhortations. Ladies of rank 
 and fortune made cartridges for the soldiers. 
 
 You have read of the heroic conduct of Mol- 
 Iv Stark, the soldier's wife, during the battle 
 of Trenton. During the hottest of the action 
 she carried water from a neighboring spring 
 to her husband and fellow soldiers. Her hus- 
 band was a gunner; a ball struck him, and he 
 fell at his post. No one could be spared to 
 
138 
 
 take his place. The noble and ])atri()tic wom- 
 an performed the duties of a t^^unner with so 
 much ability and bravery that she received 
 the title of Captain Molly. 
 
 The sufferino^s of the soldiers were often 
 most intense from want of clothino- and food, 
 and none but men fio-htino- for freedom would 
 have endured them with such cheerfulness 
 and heroic fortitude. 
 
 The army that went to Canada by way of 
 the Kenebec w'ere driven to such extremities 
 in the uninhabited wilderness throug-h w^hich 
 they passed late in the fall that dog-s, car- 
 tridge boxes and old shoes were eaten with 
 avidity. 
 
 In midwinter the soldiers w^ere sometimes 
 without shoes, and they could be tracked by 
 the blood from their lacerated feet. 
 
 When disheartening- defeat and disaster at- 
 tended the American arms, as was sometimes 
 the case, the enemy w^ould embrace such times 
 of gloominess to offer pardon and bribes to 
 the officers and men to induce them to aban- 
 don the cause of liberty and return to their 
 allegiance to the crown of Great Britain. 
 
 But the lang-uage of Gen. Reed on one of 
 these occasions expressed the feelings of all. 
 He was offered ten thousand pounds ster- 
 ling- and a high office in the British service if 
 he would desert the American cause. His 
 
139 
 
 noble reply was: "I am not worth purchas- 
 ing-, but such as I am the King- of Great 
 Britain is not rich enoug^h to buy me." 
 
 Lastly: There were a God acknowledging- 
 and a God-fearing- people. They not only 
 believed the abstract truth or doctrine of the 
 existence of a Supreme Being-, but with a 
 firm reliance on the protection of Divine Prov- 
 idence, they mutually pledg-ed each other 
 *'their lives, their fortunes and their sacred 
 honor," for the support of the principles set 
 forth in the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The records of Cong-ress at that time abund- 
 antly prove this by the frequent national days 
 of fasting- and prayer and seasons of thanks- 
 g-iving-. When disaster attended the Ameri- 
 can army a day of fasting- and prayer was ob- 
 served, and when success and victory brig-ht- 
 ened the prospects of freedom a day of public 
 thanksg-iving-. 
 
 The special providence of God was clearly 
 manifested in g-uiding- and controling- the 
 events of that long- strug-g-le, which eventuated 
 so gloriously to the cause of liberty and the 
 people of the colonies. In raising- up such a 
 man as Washing-tion at such a time, in pre- 
 serving- his life, thoug-h frequently in the 
 hottest of the fig-ht, in blood and carnag-e. 
 
 In distinctly marked providence in favor of 
 the Americans and ag-ainst the enemy. There 
 
140 
 
 is the memorable niilit.irx- lace that t()f)k ])lace 
 l)et\veen (Tencral Mori^-an and Lord Cornwal- 
 lis at the south — hrst to the lords of the Ca- 
 tawba, and then to those of the Yadkin. 
 
 Moro-an, with a force of Americans j^reatly 
 inferior in number, was retreatinor from and 
 in imminent dang-er of capture or destruction 
 by the British army under Cornwallis. Mor- 
 g-an reached the Catawba river just in time to 
 cross before nig^htfall. Cornwallis, with his 
 command, did not dare to attempt the cross- 
 ing- in the darkness. During- the nig-ht a tre- 
 mendous rain swelled the river out of banks, 
 making- it impossible for the British to cross 
 save by a long- detour, which was made. 
 
 A little later, and during- the same retreat, 
 Cornwallis' army stopped by darkness camped 
 on the banks of the Yadkin river. The camp- 
 fires of Morgan's band of patriots could be 
 seen on the other side, and it seemed as 
 though the lig-ht of the following- day must 
 witness their destruction, butag-ain the "win- 
 dows of heaven were opened" and the Yadkin 
 was transformed into a rag-ing-, impassable 
 torrent. 
 
 Disheartened at what was regarded by the 
 British commander as a second interposition 
 of Divine Providence, Cornwallis turned back 
 from the pursuit, and Morgan's army was 
 saved to the cause of freedom. 
 
141 
 
 Lastly, let us briefly g-lance at the dang-ers 
 that threaten our liberties. There are foreign 
 and domestic foes to our free institutions. 
 The crowned heads of Europe have always 
 looked upon the United States with a jealous 
 eye, and with feelinofs of positive dislike, on 
 account of the discontent our institutions g'en- 
 erate in the minds of their oppressed subjects. 
 But dang-ers of this character need g-ive us 
 little alarm, as the United States in a just 
 cause is a match for any European power. 
 
 Our domestic enemies are of another and 
 more dang-erous character. 
 
 1. Intemperance is a dang-erous enemy to 
 freedom. That which puts shackles on a man 
 so effectually he cannot stir and unfits him for 
 all business. Our rulers have been captured 
 by this enemy. 
 
 2. Avarice, insatiable avarice, which leads 
 to bribery and corruption. 
 
 3. That mob spirit which has already be- 
 come formidable and increasing- in the coun- 
 try. The reig-n of the mob is the reig-n of 
 anarchy and terror. Liberties and rig-hts are 
 trampled on in the most wanton manner. 
 
 4. Another formidable enemy is the sys- 
 tem of slavery. On this point I speak as an 
 American citizen and friend of my country. 
 If there Avere at the present time no dang-er- 
 our indications seen from this quarter, the 
 
142 
 
 nature of thf case renders it an eneniv ol the 
 most formidable character. Because slavery 
 and liberty are opposites — they are antaj^-o- 
 nistic and cannot live in harmony — the one 
 must be subverted bv the other sooner or 
 later. One is based upon principles contained 
 in the Declaration of Independence, the other 
 a palpable denial of those principles, and 
 denominates that o-lorious and incomparable 
 instrument a fig-ure of speech — a rhetorical 
 flourish, a beautiful abstraction. The en- 
 croachment of slavery upon freedom since the 
 g^reat actors in the scenes of the Revolution 
 have passed away, has been steady, effectual 
 and certain. It has demanded an abridg-e- 
 ment of the liberty of the press, strangled 
 free speech, and forced the surrender of ter- 
 ritory consecrated to freedom, to its desolat- 
 ing power. It has demanded and obtained a 
 judicial decision from the supreme tribunal of 
 the land, that its dominion is co-extensive 
 with the constitution of the United States. 
 
 God speed the day when another declaration 
 shall be made in this land, no less important, 
 no less g-rand and sublime than the one we 
 have heard read to-day, which will proclaim 
 the emancipation of a race now held in bond- 
 age, triumphantly vindicating the declaration, 
 that "all men are created equal." 
 
143 
 
 NOTE 
 
 That part of this address, referring- to slav- 
 ery as one of the dangers threatening- the 
 country, and the existence of the government, 
 and stating that freedom and slavery could 
 not long- exist side by side, that sooner or 
 later one must g^o, was prophetic. 
 
 On June 16, 1858, thirteen years later, Mr. 
 Lincoln in accepting- the nomination for 
 United States Senator from Illinois said: 
 
 "A house divided against itself cannot 
 stand. I believe this government cannot en- 
 dure permanently, half slave and half free. I 
 do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do 
 not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it 
 will cease to be divided. It will become all 
 one thing- or the other." 
 
 William H. Seward at Rochester, New 
 York, October 25, 1858, said: 
 
 "It is an irrepressible conflict between op- 
 posing* forces, and it means that the United 
 States must and will, sooner or later become, 
 either entirely a slave holding nation or en- 
 tirelv a free labor nation." 
 
Chapter XV 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY REV. C. E. BROWN, DELIVERED IN CRESCO, 
 IOWA, SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 3, 1875. 
 
 "Our address this evening- upon the subject 
 of Temperance will be based upon the follow- 
 ing- passag-e of scripture: 'And I looked and 
 beheld a pale horse; and his name that sat on 
 him was Death, and Hell followed with him. 
 And power was g-iven unto them over the 
 fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword 
 and with hung-er, and with death, and by the 
 beasts of the earth.' Rev. 6: 8. 
 
 In the early history of mankind, when the 
 words of the lang-uag-e of the people were few 
 and inadequate to express abstract and pro- 
 found truths, emblems, symbols, hierog-lyph- 
 ics, and other representations w^ere resorted 
 to as means by which ideas were conveved 
 from one person to another; and although 
 
 [144] 
 
145 
 
 sometimes unavoidably involving- the subject 
 in doubt and obscurity, yet particularly im- 
 pressive. Althoug-h the book of Revelation 
 contains much g-iven in symbols which the 
 lapse of time alone can unfold, yet we read 
 those descriptions, unsurpassed as they are 
 in majesty and sublimity, with the deepest in- 
 terest and most profound awe and reverence. 
 The book of Revelation is pre-eminently a 
 book of symbols and in the interpretation and 
 application of the symbols of this particular 
 passag-e, expositors have by no means been 
 ag-reed. And without the least pretense to 
 uncommon orig-inality w^e shall venture to 
 make a new application of these symbols for 
 your consideration this evening-. 
 
 We shall apply them and endeavor to make 
 g-ood that application, to Intemperance and its 
 train of consequences. 
 
 And why not? War is symbolized in this 
 book. Famine is symbolized. Pestilence that 
 walketh in darkness, and destruction that 
 wasteth at noon day, are symbolized. And 
 why not that more fearful curse, that unsur- 
 passed evil which entails upon the human fam- 
 ily far more widespread and dreadful calam- 
 ities than war, famine and pestilence com- 
 bined. This is not an exag-g-erated statement, 
 but is fully corroborated by carefully pre- 
 pared and thoroughly reliable statistics. 
 
146 
 
 Now lor tlic symbols and their application. 
 
 The writer of this wonderfnl hook has in 
 vision a train — a procession. At the head of 
 this procession is a pale horse with his rider. 
 The name of the rider is Death, and Hell fol- 
 lowed with him and made up the train. 
 
 The Pale Horse is Intemperance. The 
 rider, which personifies the direct conse- 
 quences of intemperance, is Death. Hell or 
 Hades, which makes up the mij^hty proces- 
 sion — the dark abyss whose depths have never 
 been measured — whose g-loomy recesses have 
 never been surveyed, follows to eng-ulf and 
 swallow everythinor that is honest, just, pure, 
 lovely, or of g-ood report, in short, everything- 
 that makes life pleasant and desirable. 
 
 This represents the squalid wretchedness, 
 the untold and indescribable devastation, 
 moral and physical, which intemperance en- 
 tails upon the human family. 
 
 But let us make up the mig-hty train. 
 
 First. The Pale Horse. This word des- 
 cribing- the color or appearance of the horse 
 is fearfully sig-nificant and is not fully ex- 
 pressed by the word pale. It means a livid 
 pallor — a peculiar combination of black and 
 blue so as to produce a purple pallor, such 
 as is seen in the bloated face of him who died 
 after a protracted season of debauchery, the 
 victim of intemperance. The rider of this 
 
147 
 
 pale horse the writer does not describe, but 
 he calls him Death. 
 
 This pale horse with his rider is at the head 
 of the column. 
 
 But let us in the first place make a street or 
 way for this procession. 
 
 And in order that saloon keepers and all 
 that are eng-ag-ed in the nefarious traffic may- 
 have a clear and impressive view of the extent 
 of their work of devastation, we will arrang-e 
 their shops, and we embrace only those in our 
 own beloved country, in two continuous par- 
 allel lines and we have a compact street more 
 than one hundred miles in leng-th. 
 
 As you pass along- this street you will see 
 mag-nificent palaces with marble fronts, fitted 
 up in the most g-org-eous and expensive man- 
 ner to allure the rich, the noble, the educated, 
 the refined, the g-ay and the g-iddy, within 
 their g-ilded walls to sip the poison from 
 g-olden g-oblets. You will also see low, loath- 
 some dog-g-eries, patronized by the masses 
 from the slums of cities and towns. These 
 are the extremes. Then there is every inter- 
 mediate g-rade, so that all classes are em- 
 braced within their destructive purposes. 
 
 Death upon the Pale Horse triumphantly 
 enters this long- street, this mig-hty avenue of 
 destruction — the murmuring- winds of heaven 
 mournfully playing- the death dirg-e — followed 
 
148 
 
 first by a funeral procession, composed of 
 those who have died as the direct effects of 
 intoxication in a sin^jj-le year — one hundred and 
 fifty-two thousand in number, and makin^j^ a 
 procession more than fifty miles in len<^th, 
 takino- many days to pass a g^iven point. 
 Tramp, tramp, this sad and melancholy cor- 
 tege moves nig-ht and day. 
 
 Among- the dead you will see representatives 
 from every class of society — senators, gfovern- 
 ors, g"enerals, lawyers, doctors, professors 
 from colleg"es, ministers of the g^ospel, farm- 
 ers, mechanics, students, clerks, old, middle 
 ag*ed, young-, and not a few females. 
 
 And then add to this long- procession all 
 who have lost their lives indirectly from in- 
 temperance — those who have been murdered — 
 wives and children who have died by the cru- 
 elty and neg-lect of drunken husbands and 
 fathers — the thousands that have lost their 
 lives on railroads and steamboats and other- 
 wise, throug-h the stupidity and recklessness 
 of employes, caused by drink, and the mig-hty 
 column is nearly doubled. 
 
 And as a larg-e majority of those composing- 
 this part of the procession are husbands and 
 fathers, the next to file in are the mourners. 
 They come in all the sad and squalid wretch- 
 edness and misery which intemperance en- 
 tails. One hundred thousand widows and 
 
149 
 
 three hundred thousand children moving- in 
 double file making- a procession many miles in 
 length. They come from dark, damp, gloomy 
 cellars, filthy garrets, alms houses, poor 
 houses and insane asylums. 
 
 The wails of these worse than widowed 
 women, the cries of these worse than orphaned 
 children, ascend to heaven and call in trumpet 
 tones for veng-eance upon their inhuman tor- 
 menters— the brutal authors of their sorrows. 
 See the heart-broken wife and mother, with a 
 face haggard with care and want as she tries 
 in vain to hush the cries of a hung-ry babe. 
 Hear the lamentations of mothers over sons 
 who have gone down early in life to drunk- 
 ard's graves. "Oh, my son, my darling- son, 
 would to God I had died for thee and with 
 thee ere thou didst open thine eyes upon a 
 rum cursed earth." 
 
 Look, my hearers, at this saddest of all 
 funeral corteg-es as it is moving-. Inspect 
 each family g-roup as it passes. See that wid- 
 owed mother, pale, haggard, forlorn, carrying- 
 a puny, sickly child in her arms, leading- an- 
 other by the hand, followed by three or four 
 more without the first expression of youthful 
 vivacity and cheerfulness in their faces, all 
 utterly crushed out by the demon of intem- 
 perance. 
 
 What we have thus briefly referred to in 
 
150 
 
 the appearance of this ])rocession of mourners 
 is only some of the outside visible fruits of 
 intemperance — of the rum traffic. 
 
 But the most vivid, the strongest imag'ina- 
 tion fails to brin^- out the scenes which lie 
 back of the visible and apparent ravai^^es of in- 
 temperance, and far deeper than all these, 
 there lies a field of desolation, of devastation 
 and ruin, which has never been explored and 
 never can be described. "It is the wasted 
 realm of social affection, the violated sanc- 
 tuary of domestic peace." In that field the 
 brig*htest hopes have been blasted, the most 
 cherished aspirations disappointed, ambition 
 crushed and loving" hearts broken. 
 
 Many years ag-o, in one of the eastern states, 
 a young- couple were united in marriag-e. 
 They were well educated, moved in the best 
 circles of society, and w^ere respected by all. 
 
 Their wedding- festivities were not shaded 
 by a sing-le misg-iving* of either party. They 
 started out upon life's voyag-e with apparently 
 no adverse breeze or threatening- cloud. The 
 future however revealed the fact that a small 
 cloud "like a man's hand" lay concealed be- 
 low the horizon, whose dark hues, as it g-rad- 
 ually came in sig-ht, were in a measure di- 
 vested of their ug-liness by the brilliant rays 
 of the morning- sun. But that cloud, small 
 and then foreboding" no alarming- dang-er. 
 
151 
 
 gradually rose and expanded until the whole 
 heavens were overcast, and it poured its des- 
 tructive fiery bolts into the once happy family. 
 
 The fact was, though successfull}^ con- 
 cealed, the young man had contracted a taste 
 for intoxicating- drink. Without following the 
 history of the family, always the same under 
 like circumstances, things went from bad to 
 worse until years of wretchedness had passed. 
 One winter night the loving, confiding wife, 
 now a mother of several children, in a cold, 
 cheerless house, after putting the older ones 
 to bed and caring for them as best she could, 
 sat holding a sick one upon her lap. The hus- 
 band and father came home at a late hour 
 crazed with whiskey. Enraged because his 
 supper was not ready he seized an old fash- 
 ioned house shovel and with one terrible blow 
 upon her head felled her to the floor. An 
 alarm was given by the older children and 
 when the neighbors came they found the poor 
 woman already dead with tear stained cheeks. 
 
 Now take those tears as the representative 
 of all the tears caused by the intemperance of 
 that husband and father, and suppose them to 
 be the representatives of all the sorrow and 
 wretchedness caused directly and indirectly 
 by his intemperance; then let the history of 
 those tears be fully written, and we have a 
 description of the devastation of intemperance 
 
152 
 
 in one family and its immediate connections. 
 We sav its connections, for let it be borne in 
 mind that that intemperate man was connected 
 by stron<)f and tender ties to others besides 
 his wife and children. He was a son and 
 brother as well as a husband and father. Fur- 
 thermore, that dead wife and mother was also 
 a daug-hter and sister, by reason of which sor- 
 row and sadness were carried into other 
 hearts and other families. And then let it 
 be borne in mind that the consequences of 
 that father's intemperance are entailed upon 
 his children and perhaps upon children's 
 children even to the third and fourth gener- 
 ations. 
 
 But w^e must pass on. Must leave this part 
 of Hell that follows in the train of Death upon 
 the Pale Horse, thoug-h by no means have we 
 reached the end of the mighty column. 
 
 The next in the procession are from the 
 jails, houses of correction, prisons, peniten- 
 tiaries, and the like. The cause of their be- 
 ing in those places is told in one word — 
 whiskey. 
 
 Their number amounts to over one hundred 
 thousand annually, guilty of every shade of 
 crime from petty larceny to the most brutal 
 murder. There is nothing- in all nature that 
 has the power like intoxicating drinks to stu- 
 pify the conscience, to paralyze the moral sen- 
 
153 
 
 timents, to blot out the affection, in short, to 
 so completely brutalize the entire man. Un- 
 der its influence husbands murder wives. 
 Parents murder children, children murder 
 parents, brothers murder brothers, neig^hbors 
 murder neighbors. 
 
 This immense army of criminals is also 
 composed of representatives of every class of 
 community, every occupation, every ag-e and 
 of both sexes. 
 
 Now, my friends, could all the bloody, re- 
 volting* and trag-ical circumstances connected 
 with the perpetration of all the crimes this 
 mig-hty army are g-uilty of be enacted before 
 our own eyes, we mig'ht be prepared in some 
 measure to appreciate the application of the 
 symbols of the text. And Hell followed in 
 the train. 
 
 But we have not yet reached the end of this 
 mig^hty column. Still they come. It reaches 
 back to an immeasurable distance. The van 
 of another division crowds closely upon the 
 rear of the preceding-, and the thousands of 
 the approaching" column will soon take the 
 places of those g-one before. 
 
 The next in the procession are the living- 
 drunkards and the moderate drinkers, so 
 called. These tw^o classes are so thoroug-hly 
 interming-led and mixed up, we will make no 
 attempt to separate them. 
 
154 
 
 They bet^fin witli hecr and wiiu' and end 
 with whiskey. They be^in with ti])])lin<4-, and 
 end with drunkenness. They bet^in in the 
 parlors on Turkish and velvet carpets, in the 
 marble front and oforo-eously furnished sa- 
 loons, and end in the lowest and most filthy 
 dives, and in the o-utter. They beg-in with 
 respectability and end with debauchery, 
 shame and crime. 
 
 This class is far more numerous than any, 
 and perhaps all that preceded. Its numbers 
 g-o into millions. Prom this class the others 
 are recruited. More, if it was not for this 
 class the preceding" ones would have no exist- 
 ence. Thousands of this class who seem to 
 be so far towards the rear of the mig*hty 
 column will very soon find themselves in close 
 proximity to the Pale Horse with his rider. 
 Tramp, tramp, the procession moves steadily 
 along '*to that undiscovered country from 
 whose bourne no traveler returns." 
 
 This vast multitude in every stage of pro- 
 gress in the broad way that leads to the 
 drunkard's death and to his end, is composed 
 of husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, wives, 
 mothers, daughters, sisters, and more dis- 
 tant relations. Hence we shall be justified in 
 repeating- a statement before made: There 
 are scenes which lie back of the visible and 
 apparent ravages of intemperance and far 
 
155 
 
 deeper than all these, there lies a field of des- 
 olation, of devastation and ruin which has 
 never been explored and never can be des- 
 cribed. It is the wasted realm of the strong- 
 est and most tender social affection, the vio- 
 lated sanctuary of domestic peace. 
 
 In that field the brig-htest hopes are blasted, 
 the most cherished anticipations disappointed, 
 ambition crushed and loving- hearts broken. 
 
 All other evils and ag-ents combined em- 
 ployed by the devil himself do not and cannot 
 do so much to make hell on earth as intoxicat- 
 ing drinks. 
 
 A person may realize the truth of this state- 
 ment to some extent, by taking- a nig-ht walk 
 through the streets and alleys and avenues of 
 any g-reat city, where every other house is a 
 brothel and the intermediate one a saloon of 
 the lowest order, mutually furnishing- patron- 
 age to each other. 
 
 And lastly the class bringing- up the rear of 
 the column are the tax payers, the masses 
 who either voluntarily or by constraint, pay 
 tribute to intemperance. This monster evil 
 is terribly exacting- and lays every industry 
 of the nation under contribution. It crowds 
 our jails, penitentiaries, poor houses, alms 
 houses and asylums with inmates. It length- 
 ens the criminal dockets of our courts. 
 
 More money is paid out in the United States 
 
156 
 
 in one year for intoxicatinf>- drinks and their 
 immediate consecjuences than for flour and 
 meal, cotton g-oods, woolen g-oods, clothing-, 
 boots and shoes, newspapers and books. If 
 all the money expended in the United States 
 annually for intoxicating- liquors and their di- 
 rect consequences was devoted to the liquida- 
 tion of the national debt, it would be wiped 
 out in less than three years. The state of 
 Iowa alone, with her string-ent liquor law, 
 spends annually nearly thirty-six millions for 
 the vile stuff. 
 
 But we will pass on. If we are correct in 
 this application of the symbols already no- 
 ticed, it will not be difficult to apply the 
 balance. 
 
 "And the power was g-iven unto them over 
 the fourth part of the earth to kill with the 
 sword, and with hung-er, and with death by 
 the beasts of the earth." 
 
 "Over a fourth of the earth." 
 
 By this we are to understand, not an exact 
 definite part, but a widespread power to con- 
 trol, a g-eneral sweeping- calamity. Pesti- 
 lence, however destructive, is confined to lo- 
 calities. War, however desolating-, is limited 
 in its calamities. Famine, however appalling-, 
 is g-enerally confined to communities. But 
 the devastations of intemperance are not 
 
157 
 
 bounded by communities, nations, or conti- 
 nents. 
 
 **To kill with the sword." 
 This means death by violence, murder in its 
 several deg-rees. It is a well known fact that 
 such deaths are the prominent fruits of in- 
 temperance. 
 
 "And with hung-er." 
 
 An unmeasured future alone can reveal the 
 countless number of human being^s who have 
 died and will yet die by starvation or by dis- 
 eases caused by want of food, or in conse- 
 quence of unwholesome food, all broug-ht about 
 by intemperance. And the number would be 
 more than doubled if it were not for the pub- 
 lic provision made to feed the hung-ry and 
 starving- victims of the inhuman traffic. 
 *«And to kill with death." 
 This is peculiar lang-uag-e and is intended 
 to express a most sig-nificant truth. Death is 
 made use of as an instrument with which to 
 kill, i. e,, death is inherent in the instrument. 
 When the sons of the prophets were eating- 
 poisoned pottage unawares, one, when he be- 
 g-an to feel the effects of the poison cries out 
 to Elisha: **0h thou man of God, there is 
 death in the pot;" i. e. we shall be killed by 
 death in the pot. 
 
 The application of this to our present sub- 
 ject is easy and perfectly apposite. As an in- 
 
15S 
 
 stninient of killing-, death or a deadly poison 
 is an inherent element of alcohol. 
 
 "And by the beasts of the earth." 
 
 Such beasts are symbols of sava<^e ferocity. 
 With remorseless indiiference, they rend, kill 
 and devour. They know no repect or sympa- 
 thy. The ag-ed, the young-, the strong- man, 
 the feeble delicate female, childhood and 
 helpless infancy are alike to them. They 
 hide, they crouch, they disguise, they allure 
 to slay and devour. 
 
 These symbolize the rum-seller. 
 
 The hung-ry lion or tig-er does not rend, kill 
 and devour its prey with more remorseless in- 
 difference, with less sympathy for its bleed- 
 ing, dying- victim, than the rum-seller, as he 
 plies his business of devastation and ruin. 
 It matters not to him what the consequences 
 may be personally to the victim of his insatia- 
 ble greed for g-ain. or what may be the conse- 
 quences to his suffering- family. It makes no 
 difference how earnestly wife and children 
 may plead to g-ive no more drink, he will let 
 him have the poison just as long- as he has a 
 dime to pay for it. 
 
 John B. Goug-h relates the following- which 
 occurred in Massachusetts: 
 
 "A poor old lady, formerly living- in afflu- 
 ence, had a husband and two sons who became 
 intemperate. One morning- a son was found 
 
159 
 
 dead with his head in a pool of water, into 
 which he had fallen while intoxicated. In 
 view of this terrible affliction, she wrote a pe- 
 tition to her neig^hbor, the rum-seller, entreat- 
 ing- him to g-ive her husband and remaining- 
 son no more liquor. Such a petition coming" 
 from the w^ife and mother, under such circum- 
 stances, one would think might have melted a 
 heart of adamant. But it did not melt the 
 rum-seller's heart. He took the petition, 
 read it, deliberately cut it into tapers and put 
 them in a tumbler, and when the father and 
 son came into the bar room, he would g-ive 
 them cig-ars and those tapers to light them. 
 This he continued until they were all con- 
 sumed, and then boasted that he had made the 
 father and son burn up the pious petition of 
 the old woman." 
 
 "And I looked and beheld a Pale Horse and 
 his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell 
 followed with him." 
 
Chapter XVI. 
 
 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 22, 1892, AT SEMI-CEN- 
 TENNIAL JUBILEE OF THE DAVENPORT BAP- 
 TIST ASSOCIATION, AT CLINTON, IOWA. 
 
 "In this historical address we wish to illus- 
 trate Bible lessons to the praise and g"lory of 
 God. Such lessons as are found in Josh. 1: 
 G-7: "Be strong- and of g-ood courag-e. Only 
 be thou strong- and very courag-eous, that 
 thou mayest observe to do all the law which 
 Moses, My servant, commanded thee. Turn 
 not from it, to the rig-ht hand or to the left, 
 that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou 
 g-oest." 
 
 Also, Isa. 6: 8-9: "I heard the voice of the 
 Lord saying-: Whom shall I send and who 
 will g-o for Us? Then said I, here am I; send 
 me. And He said, Go." 
 
 [160] 
 
161 
 
 Also, Mark 16: 15: "And He said unto 
 them, Go ye into all the world and preach the 
 g-ospel to every creature." 
 
 Also, Ps. 37: 3: "Trust in the Lord and do 
 g-ood, and thou shall dwell in the land and 
 verily thou shalt be fed." 
 Dwell in the land. 
 
 Our Iowa is indeed a beautiful land. A 
 g-oodly land. A land desirable to dwell in. 
 We do not wonder the Indians, when the time 
 came to take a final leave of this beautiful land 
 and move on towards the setting- sun, wept 
 like children. 
 
 The first, or Black Hawk purchase, made in 
 1832, taking- effect June, 1833, embraced a 
 strip fifty miles wide west of the Mississippi 
 river, extending from the state of Missouri on 
 the south to the neutral ground on the north, 
 containing- about six million acres. 
 
 The second purchase, made in 1837, taking- 
 effect February, 1838, was a strip west of the 
 first and supposed to contain 1,250,000 acres. 
 The balance of Iowa was opened for settle- 
 ment in May, 1843. In one year from the time 
 the first or Black Hawk purchase took effect, 
 the first Baptist Church in Iowa was org-an- 
 ized nine or ten miles west of Burling-ton, 
 and called the Long Creek (now Danville) 
 Baptist Church. The six Iowa Churches 
 composing the Davenport Association were 
 
1(»2 
 
 all ()r<4ani/cd wliilr \'an liurun, jL'ffers(jn, 
 Was hi Hilton, Johnson, Linn, Buchanan, Fay- 
 ette and Clayton counties were the western 
 boundary of civilization, and the eastern 
 boundary of a vast territory extendi njjf to the 
 British possessions on the north and the Pa- 
 cific on the west, and in the sole possession 
 of Indians and wild beasts. At that time 
 the nearest railroad to Iowa had not reached 
 as far west as the city of BuiTalo, and 
 Chicaofo was a country villa.o-e in a v,estern 
 sloug'h, or mud hole. And at that time the 
 impression was g-eneral that in consequence 
 of the scarcity of fuel and fencing- material, 
 and so far from w^ater communication, the 
 great prairies of Illinois and Iowa would never 
 be settled. 
 
 The contrast between then and now came 
 most impressively a few^ weeks ag^o as we 
 sped on a Burling-ton train throug-h the luxur- 
 iant g^rain fields of Iowa and Nebraska, and as 
 ^ve rushed along-, drawn by g-reat mog^ul en- 
 g-ines, scaling' the snowy heig^hts and plung-- 
 ing- throug-h the dark and awful g-ranite canons 
 of Colorado, and as we walked the streets of 
 thein growing- and prosperous cities and 
 towns, and as we considered that like condi- 
 tions continue for many hundred miles to the 
 Pacific ocean. 
 
 The first Baptist Church west of the Mis- 
 
163 
 
 sissippi river, north of Missouri, was organ- 
 ized in a little loo- cabin nine miles west of the 
 city of Burling-ton. This interesting- event 
 took place June 20, 1834, and consisted of 
 eleven members, four brethren and seven sis- 
 ters, namely, Enoch Cyrus, Prank Cyrus, 
 Rebecca Cyrus, Anna Cyrus, Rachel Dickens, 
 Mary Ann Dickens, Noble Housely, Naomi 
 Housely, William Manly, Hepzibah Manly and 
 Jane Lamb. Elders John Log-an and Gard- 
 ner Bassett, of Illinois, were present to en- 
 courao-e and assist in the organization of the 
 church. It was called the Long- Creek 
 Church. 
 
 Four or five years after, close by this same 
 cabin on the prairie lawn, the first Associa- 
 tion west of the Mississippi river was organ- 
 ized, called Des Moines Association. In Oct- 
 ober, 1889, on a bright autumn day, as though 
 God smiled upon the scene, a large concourse 
 of people gathered around the remains of the 
 little cabin to appropriately observe memorial 
 services of the fift3^-fourth anniversary of the 
 Church, and the fiftieth of the Association. 
 How intensely interesting' the thought and 
 imaginations that crowded upon the mind and 
 solemnly and joyfully oppressed our hearts, 
 as we looked upon the remains of that cabin 
 and thought of the happy meeting more than 
 fifty-four 3^ears before — of the songs of praise, 
 
164 
 
 ''All Hail the Power of Jesus Name," and the 
 sermon by Elder Lo^-an and the prayer by 
 Elder Bassett that God would be to the dear 
 little Church in the wilderness "a pillar of 
 cloud by day and a pillar of lire by ni<^ht/' to 
 lead and protect. That church, now Danville, 
 yet lives, strong- in the Lord and in the power 
 of His mig-ht. 
 
 We will g-ive a brief history of the organi- 
 zation of the seven Churches composing- the 
 Baptist Association, org-anized in Davenport, 
 September 16, 1842. The second west of the 
 Mississippi river, north of Missouri. 
 
 We will beg-in with LeClaire, as this was the 
 first Baptist Church org-anized west of the 
 Mississippi and north of Des Moines county. 
 Early in 1839, Elder Rodolphus Weston, of 
 Carthage, Hancock county, Illinois, made a 
 missionary tour up the Mississippi as far 
 north as Scott county, Iowa, preaching- the 
 precious g-ospel to the settlers. In the upper 
 part of Scott county he stopped a number of 
 days to preach and visit the people. The re- 
 sult was the org-anization of a Church of six 
 members, viz: Joseph Turner and Tacy, his 
 wife. Jiving- a mile west of where LeClaire now 
 stands. William Palmer and Amanda, his 
 wife, living- in the Wapsy Bottom, ten miles 
 north of brother Turner's, and William Rowe 
 and Mary, his wife, living- in a log- cabin on 
 
165 
 
 the banks of the Mississippi, midway between 
 the two extremes. The little Church was or- 
 ganized in brother Rowe's house June 10, 
 1839, and this was the place of meeting- for 
 several years. As brother Palmer and wife, 
 and brother Rowe and wife emig-rated from 
 Bath, Steuben county, New York; in grateful 
 remembrance of the dear old home they called 
 it the Bath Baptist Church. This name was 
 retained until April, 1844, when it was 
 changed to LeClaire. Brother Palmer 
 brought with him from New York a favorite 
 family horse, very old, but true and faithful. 
 The old horse's name was "Doc." People 
 living- on the road between brother Palmer's 
 and brother Rowe's always knew when there 
 was a meeting- of the Church, for they were 
 sure to see sister Palmer riding- old "Doc" 
 and brother Palmer walking- by her side. El- 
 der Weston was invited to become pastor; ac- 
 cepted and returned to Carthage to arrange 
 family matters. He was taken sick, hover- 
 ing- between life and death for weeks. His 
 cherished plans and purposes had to be given 
 up, and he never returned. The Church 
 kept up Covenant meetings and had preach- 
 ing occasionally. Two months after the 
 Church was organized, Daniel C. Davidson, 
 living on Crow Creek, a few miles above Dav- 
 enport, united by letter. Ten months later 
 
PollyMcKinstcr joiiu'd 1)\- K'tU'r. Ncarlx' two 
 ye.'irs later Koht'rt Hilton and Orleans Blan- 
 chard, livinj^- in Illinois baciv of Port Bvron, 
 joined by letter. At the time the Daven- 
 port Association was formed, it reported a 
 membership of eleven. One of the constit- 
 uent members, brother Rowe, had died. 
 
 The first revival and the iirst additions by 
 baj^tism occurred in the fall of 1843, under 
 the labors of Elder Jessie N. Seely. Twen- 
 ty-two were added by baptism and ei^-ht by 
 letter. From this time for years it enjoyed a 
 g-ood measure of prosperity until the Zion 
 Church was oro-anized a few miles back of 
 LeClaire, depriving- it of most of its rural 
 field and membership, and left it little but 
 the fluctuating- population of the villag^e. 
 
 May God in His mercy send prosperity and 
 save it from extinction. 
 
 Davenport — This is the next church in the 
 date of its org-anization, September 14, 1839, 
 consisting- of eleven members. Elder Calvin 
 Greenleaf, of Grig-g-sville, Illinois, w^as com- 
 missioned in the spring- of 1839 by the Home 
 Missionary Societ\^ to labor in Davenport. 
 He commenced in June and remained but two 
 months. Elder Titus Gillett, of Rock Island, 
 held occasional preaching services in the place, 
 and probably it was due to his labors the 
 Church was constituted. For several months 
 it had the services of Oliver Emerson, a young- 
 
167 
 
 man from Ohio, but declined to ordain him as 
 his views on the subject of the Lord's supper 
 did not accord with the Baptists, and he be- 
 came a Conoregationalist. 
 
 In June, 1841, Elder Ezra Pisher was com- 
 missioned by the Home Missionary Society to 
 labor in Davenport and Bloomino^ton (Mus- 
 catine). Before the close of the first year he 
 dropped the Davenport part of his field and 
 devoted his time to Muscatine and other 
 places. 
 
 November, 1842, Elder Charles E. Brown 
 became joint pastor of the Davenport and 
 Rock Island Churches. In the following- Feb- 
 ruary revival meeting's were held, assisted by 
 Elder T. Powell, in the Old Court House in 
 Rock Island, As there was easy communica- 
 tion between the two places by a safe ice 
 bridg-e on the Mississippi river, during- that 
 long-, cold winter Davenport shared largely in 
 the g-ood work, receiving- eig'hteen by baptism, 
 and fifteen by letter. Rock Island received 
 twenty by baptism and five by letter. 
 
 During- the following- summer, 1843, Elder 
 Brown made several missionary tours up the 
 Mississippi on both sides as far as Lyons and 
 Pulton; org-anized a Church at Camanche, and 
 one at Port Byron, and baptized in both 
 places. These early Churches had the true 
 missionary spirit and said to their pastors, 
 
lf)8 
 
 "Go, preach to the destitute in regions be- 
 yond." 
 
 Dubuque — This is the next Church, organ- 
 ized August 9, 1840, with eleven members. 
 During the following winter it had preaching 
 a part of the time by Elder Warren B. Morey, 
 of the Home Missionary Society at Galena, 
 Illinois. Elder Burton Carpenter became 
 pastor in the spring of 1841. During his pas- 
 torate of three years, eleven were received 
 by baptism and eighteen by letter, and a place 
 of worship, yes, a meeting house, about twenty 
 by thirty, was built. Elder Edward S. By- 
 ron succeeded Elder Carpenter in Septem- 
 ber, 1844. 
 
 Iowa City — This Church was organized by 
 Elders W. B. Morey and B. Carpenter, June 
 26, 1841, consisting of eleven members. The 
 joyful occasion was rendered more so by the 
 baptism of two rejoicing candidates in the 
 beautiful Iowa river, Elder Morey officiating. 
 There w^as joy in that city. Elder Morey was 
 the first pastor. After the first year his field 
 was enlarged by the Home Missionary Society 
 to take in low^a City, Marion, in Linn county, 
 and the Cedar river country. The first 
 marked religious interest in the Iowa City 
 Church occurred under the pastorate of Elder 
 Dexter P, Smith, during the winter of 1845-6. 
 
169 
 
 Nine were added by baptism and eig-ht by 
 letter. 
 
 Muscatine — This Church was organized by 
 Elder Ezra Fisher, October 30, 1841, consist- 
 ing- of six members, viz: Stephen Hedly, Al- 
 bert Beaty, Julia C. Dew^bber, Margaret Mus- 
 g-raves, Betsy Ing-als and Nancy Bear. Dur- 
 ing- the first year of its existence four were 
 added by baptism and fourteen by letter. 
 Elder Fisher was the first pastor and left in 
 1844, g-oing- to Oreg-on in 1845. 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois— This Church was or- 
 g-anized June 6, 1837, by Elder Titus Gillett, 
 who was its first pastor. In November, 1842, 
 the Church called Elder C. E. Brown to preach 
 the following- winter and in May "called Elder 
 Brown to be co-pastor w^ith Elder Gillett, the 
 two to receive such compensation as the indi- 
 vidual circumstances of the members would 
 allow." 
 
 Forks of the Maquoketa — On the 26th of 
 May, 1842, under appointment from the Amer- 
 ican Baptist Home Missionary Society, on a 
 salary of one hundred dollars, the payment of 
 which was made conditional that the balance 
 of the missionary's support was obtained up- 
 on the field of his labor. Elder Brown came to 
 this place. 
 
 At this time the Home Missionary Society 
 was in its infancy and had but little money 
 
170 
 
 lor its consl.'inth' i^row inj^- woi'k. I)iirin<^- its 
 fiscal and missionary year of 1842 and '43, the 
 receipts of the Society from all sources 
 amounted to onl\- S11,S()().51 , with ei<>-hty-five 
 missionaries in the Held, receiving- from the 
 Society an average of about S131.00 each, and 
 obtaining^ the balance — whatever that mig-ht 
 mean — from their respective fields of labor. 
 We distinctly remember that the balance con- 
 tained very little cash. With no intention of 
 making- invidious comparisons, we think there 
 was more of the ag'gfressive missionary spirit 
 then, than now. We will compare the fiscal 
 and missionary year of 1842-43 with that of 
 1881-82, the fiftieth year of the Society work. 
 Then, cash receipts were $11,806.51; now, 
 $311,918.38. Then, eig-hty-five missionaries 
 in the field; now% five hundred and twelve. 
 Results: Then, the eig-hty-five missionaries 
 org'anized fifty new churches in one year; now, 
 five hundred and twelve missionaries organ- 
 ized only seventy-five new churches in one 
 year. Then, eig^hty-five missionaries in one 
 year baptized one thousand four hundred and 
 eig-hty-nine, or over seventeen each; now, five 
 hundred and twelve missionaries baptize in 
 one year one thousand six hundred and sev- 
 enty-five, or less than four each. 
 
 Two of the six Iowa Churches composing- 
 the Davenport Association commenced with 
 
171 
 
 six members each — LeClaire and Muscatine- 
 
 Three — Davenport, Dubuque and Iowa City, 
 commenced with eleven each. 
 
 One — Maquoketa, with fourteen. 
 
 All now prospering- except LeClaire. 
 
 A Church now with a g-ood house of worship 
 and plenty of perishing- souls around, reduced 
 to a membership of six or eleven, or twenty- 
 five or thirty, g-ives up and says "We can't" 
 and dies. 
 
 What makes the difference? 
 
 In the former case there was courag-e, pur- 
 pose, and an unfailing- expectation to live and 
 prosper. 
 
 In the latter courag-e is g'one, purpose is 
 g'one, but an all-prevailing- expectation to die 
 is ever present. 
 
 Next. What is the Bible missionary spirit 
 embodied in the commission "Go ye into all 
 the world, etc., etc.?" Paul was converted 
 completely into this spirit, for when it pleased 
 God, w^ho called him by His Grace, to reveal 
 His son in me, Gal. 1:15-16, he says: "That 
 I mig-ht preach Him among- the heathen, im- 
 mediately, I conferred not Avith flesh and 
 blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, but I 
 went to Arabia." 
 
 A vision appeared to Paul in the nig-ht; 
 there stood a man saying- : "Come over into 
 Macedonia, and help us, and immediately we 
 
172 
 
 endeavored to ^ro into Macedonia, assuredly 
 gfathering- that the Lord had called us to 
 preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, 
 loosing- from Troas we came with a straig^ht 
 course to Samothracia '• ^' "^ and so on to 
 Philippi, the chief city in that part of Mace- 
 donia." In another place Paul says of him- 
 self, ''as poor, yet making- many rich; as hav- 
 ing nothing- yet possessing- all thing's," etc. 
 Now, as Paul declares that he was poor and 
 had nothing- he must have g-cne forth accepting^ 
 to the fullest extent the divine assurance, 
 "Trust in the Lord and do g-ood and verily 
 thou shalt be fed," and, "Lo, I am with you 
 always, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 If we understand the Bible Missionary 
 spirit, the question as to salary cuts no iig-ure 
 whatever in making- the decision "Assuredly 
 g-athering that the Lord had called us to 
 preach the g-ospel unto them." 
 
 For want of this Apostolic Missionary spirit 
 hundreds of these reduced churches have died 
 and hundreds more must die. For it is very 
 certain these feeble churches cannot pay the 
 salaries now demanded, and this is the princi- 
 pal reason for losing- hope and courag-e. This 
 precious divine promise was intended to meet 
 this perplexing- salary business: "Trust in 
 the Lord and do g-ood and thou shalt dwell in 
 the land and verily thou shalt be fed." 
 
173 
 
 We believe in the providence of God and 
 that the gold and the silver and the cattle upon 
 a thousand hills are His and at His control, 
 and upon this g-rand truth is based this most 
 precious promise. The promise does not re- 
 lease even the poorest of Christians from the 
 binding- obligation of the divine command, "To 
 give as the Lord hath prospered." The poor 
 widow^'s mites must be given? 
 
 Our great Captain says, "Go ye into all the 
 world," etc. 
 
 The Bible plan is given in Isaiah. The 
 Lord said: "Whom shall we send and who 
 will go for us?" God calls for volunteers. 
 The response comes promptly, "Here am I; 
 send me," The Lord says "Go." The sal- 
 ary question is settled by "Trust in the Lord." 
 One reason the Methodists are more success- 
 ful than any other denomination in a new 
 country is because they are on the Bible plan 
 in saying to their preachers, "Go." 
 
 In the month of June, 1842, at Iowa City, 
 the Iowa Baptist State Convention was or- 
 ganized. Delegates from churches north of 
 the Iowa river held an informal meeting to 
 consider the subject of organizing a new as- 
 sociation, and fixed upon Davenport as the 
 place and the 16th of the following Septem- 
 ber as the time for carrying out the above 
 purpose. 
 
174 
 
 111 ])iirsnaiK"c' ol t Ik' .-Lhovc .'ipj)()iiitniL'nt, dcl- 
 eo-ates Iroin tlu' lollowini^- cliurclu's were 
 present : 
 
 Bath, (LeClaire) - William Palmer, Benja- 
 min l'\ Pike and Orleans Blanchard. 
 
 Bloom in<,rton, (Muscatine) — Elder Ezra Fish- 
 er, pastor, Moses Perrin and W. T. Dewibber. 
 
 Davenport — Hiram Brown, C. C. Blood, J. 
 M. Eldredg-e. 
 
 Dubuque — Elder Burton Carpenter, pastor, 
 and Benjamin Rupert. 
 
 Iowa City — Elder Warren B. Morey, pastor, 
 and A. Denison. 
 
 Forks of the Maquoketa— Elder C. E. Brown, 
 pastor. 
 
 Rock Island, 111.— Elder Titus Gillett, pas- 
 tor, E. F. Calkins and Nelson J. Swart- 
 wout. 
 
 This embraced all the churches north of the 
 Iowa river, except the first, Delaware, in 
 Delaware, county, Elder Ira Blanchard, 
 pastor. 
 
 Elder Carpenter w^as chosen moderator. 
 Elder Fisher, clerk, and Elder Brown preached 
 the sermon. Elder Brown is the only one of 
 these- deleg-ates now^ livino-. 
 
 In iixintr the time for the annual meeting- of 
 the Association two important considerations 
 had to be met. 1st. To avoid the sickly sea- 
 son in autumn. 2nd. To have it at the time 
 
175 
 
 of wild fruits, fresh vegetables and fat chick- 
 ens. But as all these, sickness, fat chickens 
 and fresh veg-etables, came at the same time 
 of the year, of the two evils we concluded to 
 take the least, and have the chickens and take 
 our chances with the ague, and fixed on Friday 
 before the third Sabbath in September, and 
 hold the meeting over the Sabbath. 
 
 This time remained until wise men came 
 from the East and chano-ed it, to the o-reat 
 detriment of the spiritual and devotional parts 
 of the meeting'. 
 
 The first annual meeting of the Association 
 was held in Dubuque, commencing Friday, the 
 15th day of September, 1842. Elder W. B. 
 Morey preached the introductory sermon, 
 George S. Hampton was chosen moderator, 
 and Joseph T. Fales, clerk. 
 
 Although the delegates had to travel from 
 sixty to ninety miles by wagon, a good repre- 
 sentation was present. At this session six 
 new churches were received into the Associa- 
 tion, viz : Fulton and Lyons, Elder E. Mar- 
 cellus, pastor, and H. Root, delegates; two 
 added by baptism, twelve by letter ; present 
 membership twelve. 
 
 Camanche — No pastor ; John Welsh, dele- 
 gate ; eight added bv baptism; whole number 
 twelve. These eight were baptised at the 
 
17() 
 
 time the church was organized, probably June, 
 1843, bv Elder C. E. Brown. 
 
 Port Byron, 111. — Daniel Wilson, delef^'-ate ; 
 four added by baptism, baptised at the time 
 the church was org-anized, June or July, 1843, 
 by Elder C. E. Brown. Whole number twenty. 
 
 Marion — Org-anized by Elder W. B. Morey 
 in the summer of 1843; three added by bap- 
 tism, five by letter ; whole number thirty-four. 
 Letter but no deleg-ates. 
 
 Cedar River, (on the Cedar river below 
 where Cedar Rapids now stands) — Organized 
 by Elder Morev in the summer of 1843; five 
 added by baptism; whole number seventeen; 
 Robert R. Rogers and Thomas Fitz, delegates. 
 
 Galena, 111. — Elder Joel Wheeler, pastor, 
 John T. Templeton and John H. Champlin, 
 delegates ; one added by baptism, ten by let- 
 ter : whole number thirty-four. 
 
 The statistical aggreg-ate was reported by 
 the churches as follows: Sixty-five added by 
 baptism, sixt3^-four by letter, twenty-six dis- 
 missed by letter, three dropped, one died; 
 whole number two hundred and ninety-six. 
 
 In connection with the minutes was printed 
 an article by Elder Jacob Knapp on com- 
 munion. All done for Sll.OO. 
 
 On Sunday Elder Brown preached a mis- 
 sionary sermon, after which a collection was 
 taken up, amounting- to $8.00. 
 
177 
 
 The following- memorandum was added to 
 the minutes by the clerk: "Great harmony 
 and g-ood feeling- prevailed throug-h all the 
 deliberations and the brethren evinced a de- 
 termination to g-o forward in the cause of 
 Christ with renewed zeal." 
 
 Before closing- this address I wish to speak 
 briefly of the org-anization of the Camanche 
 Baptist Church. In the month of June, 1843, 
 a man called at my house in Davenport with a 
 halter tied about his shoulders. He said he 
 was hunting stray horses and also wished to 
 g-et a Baptist minister to come to Camanche 
 and baptize himself and wife and his brother 
 and several others who had become Christians 
 in a revival there. The man's name was John 
 Welch. Camanche is some thirty-five miles 
 above Davenport on the Iowa side of the Mis- 
 sissippi river. I told Brother Welch I would 
 be at Camanche the second Sunday thereafter 
 to preach, org-anize a Church and baptize. I 
 found there had been no preaching- in the 
 place. But a Baptist family living- three miles 
 north of Camanche by the name of Thomas, 
 and another by the name of Root, living- back 
 of Albany, in Illinois, and others had held 
 relig-ious meeting's in the place and the revival 
 was the result. I organized a Church and 
 baptized eig-ht, and there was joy in Camanche. 
 Althoug-h I was pastor of the Davenport and 
 
178 
 
 Rock Island CluirchL's, I looked after the wel- 
 fare of the new interest at Camanche. The 
 last person I baptized into the Church was a 
 youno- woman, in June, 1844, by the name of 
 Clayburn. Her home was near Brother Thom- 
 as, three miles north of Camanche. 1844 was 
 a season of hig-h water. For weeks the Mis- 
 sissippi was booming- and by reason of a sloutrh 
 extendinjj- from the river above around some 
 distance back and emptyin<>- below the town, 
 Camanche was on an island that summer. 
 Miss Clayburn 's purpose to be baptized and 
 join the Baptist Church met with the most de- 
 cided opposition at home. But when the time 
 came, with the courag-e and determination of 
 a martyr, she took a bundle of clothes for the 
 necessary chang-e and started on foot for Ca- 
 manche, and when she came to the sloug-h, 
 which was neither narrow nor shallow, she 
 held the bundle on her head with one hand and 
 went throug-h, and was cordially and loving-ly 
 received and baptized. A few years ag'o she 
 died in Oakland, California, a faithful follower 
 of Christ. 
 
 I love to think of those early days in Iowa. 
 I love to cherish the memory of those dear 
 brethren and sisters, who, amid discourag-e- 
 ment, sowed the g-ood seed in Camanche which 
 has not failed to the present time to bring* 
 forth fruit to the praise and glory of Go-.l. 
 
Chapter XVII. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REV. 
 PHILLIP PERRY BROWN, WITH BRIEF 
 SKETCHES OF HIS CHILDREN. 
 
 I was born in Bennington, Vermont, Sept- 
 ember 17, 1790. My father's name was Na- 
 thaniel. He was born in Leicester, Wooster 
 county, Massachusetts, November 5, 1767, and 
 died near White's Corners, in the town of 
 Hamburg-, Erie county. New York, October 1, 
 1854. 
 
 My mother's maiden name was Anna Perry. 
 She was born in Lebanon, New London coun- 
 ty, Connecticut, April 16, 1770, and died in 
 Aug-usta, Oneida county, New York, March 
 20, 1826. Her remains lie in the burying- 
 g-round near the stone school house on the 
 "Mile Strip," in the present town of Stock- 
 bridg-e. 
 
 I was the second of eig-ht children, five sons 
 
 [179] 
 
180 
 
 and three daughters, of whom only two, be- 
 sides myself are livinj^-. 
 
 Mv paternal orandfather was Parley Brown. 
 At the outbreaking- of the Revolutionary war, 
 he was among- the first to volunteer — and with 
 a brother entered the American army. Both 
 were in the battle of Bunker Hill. When our 
 forces were compelled to retire, his brother 
 having" been wounded and unable to walk, my 
 grandfather bore him on his back in safety 
 from the field. Both were larg-e, strong-, mus- 
 cular men, w^eig-hing- nearly two hundred 
 pounds each. 
 
 I do not know whether he took part in an}^ 
 subsequent eng-ag-ement, until the battle of 
 White Plains, in which he was killed, October 
 28, 1776. 
 
 My maternal g-randfather, Phillip Perry, 
 from whom I was named, served as a Lieuten- 
 ant in the Revolutionary war. He owned a 
 small farm in Arlington, Vermont, and in 
 the summer of 1777 obtained leave of absence 
 and returned home to secure his crops. His 
 nearest neig-hbor was a Tory, Hazard Wilcox, 
 who became odious from a well grounded sus- 
 picion that he held secret communication with 
 the enemy. Between him and Lieutenant 
 Perry, however, no differences had been suf- 
 fered to disturb their mutual friendship. 
 
181 
 
 During- the season they "chang-ed work," 
 assisting- each other in harvesting*. 
 
 Thus they spent a day in mowing- for Lieu- 
 tenant Perry. Sometime the following- nig-ht 
 a number of neig-hbors came to the house, and 
 calling- Lieutenant Perry, asked assistance in 
 the apprehension of Wilcox. Lieutenant 
 Perry declined, alleging- the neig-hborly friend- 
 ship between himself and Wilcox, and urged 
 that others make the arrest. They, however, 
 insisted that he g-o with them, and knowing- 
 Wilcox oug-ht to be confined where he could 
 no long-er harm the American cause, by inter- 
 course with the foe. Lieutenant Perry yielded 
 reluctantly to their request. Wilcox had been 
 by some means warned, and with a bludgeon 
 in hand met the party at the door, declaring- 
 that he would kill the first man who set foot 
 upon the door-step. Lieut. Perry stepped 
 forward with the remark, "I do not wish to 
 harm you," when Wilcox felled him with a 
 blow across the chest. He was carried into 
 the house, Wilcox assisting-, cared for as well 
 as possible, and soon revived to consciousness, 
 seeing- which, Wilcox rejoiced, declaring- he 
 would not have struck Lieutenant Perry had 
 he not been enrag-ed. Lieutenant Perry re- 
 covered sufficiently to walk two or three times 
 across the room, when he suddenly stopped, 
 and with the words "I am a dead man," fell 
 
182 
 
 lifeless to the floor. In the confusion Wilcox 
 escaped and tied to the British lines. 
 
 A few days afterwards Mrs. Wilcox paid 
 Mrs. Perry a friendly visit. For nearly an 
 hour both wept in silence, until at len<^th the 
 visitor left without a word having- been spoken, 
 by reason of their mutual sorrow. Wilcox 
 afterwards sent for his family, but the neig^h- 
 bors interfered and detained them. At leng-th 
 he came for them by nig-ht, and his neig-hbors 
 having- knowledg-e of his coming-, armed and 
 met him and at a g'iven sig-nal, fired, and Wil- 
 cox paid with his life the penalty for his 
 offense. 
 
 Lieutenant Perry left two daug-hters, the 
 eldest of whom was my mother. A few months 
 after, a third was added. His widow after- 
 wards married a Mr. Blair, of Benning-ton, 
 Vermont, who having- died, she subsequently 
 married a Mr. Duell, of Cambridg-e, Washing-- 
 ton county. New York, from which place they 
 removed to Shaftesbury, Vermont, where she 
 died. 
 
 This is as far back as I am now able to trace 
 my ancestry. 
 
 When I was quite young- my parents moved 
 from Benning-ton to Whitestown, now West 
 Moreland, Oneida county. New York. Here, 
 my father purchased a tract of wild land, on 
 which the villag-e of Clark's Mills now stands. 
 
183 
 
 That section of country was then new, but be- 
 ing- rapidly settled. About a month after 
 their arrival, an incident occurred of which, 
 on account of the alarm it caused us, I still 
 retain a distinct recollection. 
 
 The house occupied by my father stood near 
 the Oriskany creek. A little east of the house 
 was a road throug-h the woods in a south- 
 easterly direction, on which about one hundred 
 rods from my father's lived a Mr. Simeon 
 Fillmore, an uncle of President Millard Pill- 
 more. Prom Pillraore's, one road ran south 
 to Clinton, and another, through a larg-e 
 marsh, to intersect the first named road, half 
 a mile east of father's. Near this point re- 
 sided a family named Barker. A few rods 
 west of father's across the Oriskany, lived a 
 Mr. Stillman. The triangular space within 
 these three roads was a dense forest. 
 
 One evening- in April, our family were 
 alarmed by a strang-e noise, loud and shrill, a 
 wailing- cry, kept up at intervals, apparently 
 proceeding- from the swamp. It was evidently 
 the cry of a man in distress, or the decoy of a 
 hung-ry panther. The woods were then full 
 of Indians and wild beasts. After listening- 
 for some time, father went to Mr. Stillman's 
 and persuaded his son to accompany him on 
 the hazardous enterprise of ascertaining* the 
 cause of the outcry. 
 
184 
 
 The nitrht was very chirk. One carried a 
 lantern and the other an axe, the only weapon 
 in their possession. They proceeded to Fill- 
 more's who with his family had fastened their 
 house and retired for the ni^-ht. They had 
 heard the cry and being- unable to determine 
 whether it proceeded from civilized man, sav- 
 ag-e, or wild beast, were greatly alarmed. 
 Fillmore refused to accompany them or even 
 to open his door long- enoug-h for them to enter 
 his house. 
 
 The cry continued and my father and Still- 
 man proceeded alone. When within about 
 twenty rods of the place from which the noise 
 came, they stopped and called. The cry 
 ceased, but they g-ot no response. Standing- 
 in anxious silence till it was repeated, they ad- 
 vanced and once more called. Ag-ain it ceased; 
 and ag-ain they stood till it was resumed; then 
 cautiously proceeding-, by the dim lig-ht of 
 their lantern, they described a man lying- in a 
 pool of water. It was he who had made the 
 nig-ht hideous wdth his outcries. On speaking* 
 to him, he became quiet, but made no reply. 
 He was too drunk to extricate himself; and 
 but for the timely assistance rendered, must 
 have perished in the long-, cold night. They 
 took him to Mr. Barker's, w^here he was kindly 
 cared for. 
 
 During- this transaction, my mother was left 
 
REV. PHILLIP PERRY BROWN, 
 
BETSY DICKEY. 
 MRS. PHILLIP PERRY BROWN 
 
A. J. BROWN 
 
WILBUR M. BROWN 
 
REV. WILLIAM BROWN 
 
PHILLIP PERRY BROWN. JR. 
 
 Colonel 157th New York Infantry, and of 7th Regt. Hancock's Veteran Reserve 
 
 Corps. Brevt. Brigadier General U. S. Volunteers 1 862- 1 865. 
 
185 
 
 alone with two small children. I still recol- 
 lect that I felt safe when I could hide my face 
 under my mother's apron. 
 
 My father lived in this vicinity until the 
 spring- of 1804, when he removed to the town 
 of Augusta where he purchased a tract of wild 
 land, about half a mile east of the present site 
 of the "Mile Strip School House," the place 
 now ow^ned and occupied by a Mr. Powers. 
 Then in my fourteenth year, I assisted in 
 clearing- the land, for cultivation. 
 
 My education, commenced at Whitestown, 
 was continued in our new home and was con- 
 fined to the common school, in which reading-, 
 writing-, spelling- and arithmetic were taught. 
 Althoug-h I subsequently acquired the habit 
 of speaking- extemporaneously with consider- 
 able g-rammatical accuracy, I never studied 
 g-rammar, until the last winter of my attend- 
 ance, at which time it was introduced into the 
 public schools. 
 
 Until their removal to Aug-usta, my parents 
 trained their children to a strict observance 
 of the Sabbath; and so far as possible, to at- 
 tendance on public w^orship. Both were of 
 good moral principles; though neither pro- 
 fessed religion. My mother, however, was 
 religiously inclined. Shortly after my con- 
 version, she also obtained hope. We were 
 
18() 
 
 baptized on the same day and at the same 
 place. 
 
 On September 27th, 180*), I married Miss 
 Betsy Dickey who was also a resident of 
 Augfusta. 
 
 In 1813 I removed to Smithfield, near 
 Siloam, and for three years was eno-ag-ed with 
 a partner (Daniel Dickey, Esq., my brother- 
 in-law,) in supplying- sand for two g-lass fac- 
 tories near Peterboro, furnishing- three thous- 
 and bushels per year washed and delivered 
 ready for use. 
 
 We procured the sand from Stockbridg-e 
 valley. While in this occupation the battle of 
 Osweg-o occurred. That was before the ag-e 
 of steam and teleg-raph; and we knew nothing* 
 of the eng-ag-ement until several days after- 
 wards. But while shoveling- sand one day, we 
 heard a noise resembling- distant thunder. 
 The sky was cloudless and we suspected it to 
 be the roar of cannon far away. To satisfy 
 ourselves we drove a wooden stake into the 
 gfround; and on applying- the ear to it, readily 
 recog-nized the report of distant artillery. 
 For a time the discharg-es were very rapid; 
 but atleng-th g-radually became less frequent. 
 We thoug-ht it was the thunder of battle, and 
 several days afterward learned that the battle 
 of Osweg-o occurred on the very day and hour 
 that we heard the reports, May 6, 1814. We 
 
187 
 
 were distant from Osweg-o about fifty-five 
 miles. In October, 1814, when great alarm 
 was felt for the safety of Sackets Harbor, and 
 laro-e numbers of the Militia were called out 
 to assist in its defense, I with many of my 
 neighbors was summoned, and answered the 
 call. I was soon taken sick, however, and as 
 the only means of saving- my life, was per- 
 mitted by General Cleveland to return home. 
 
 Having- been broug-ht up a farmer, on the 
 fulfillment of the sand contract referred to, I 
 resumed that pursuit in the vicinity of my 
 new home, and continued it several years. 
 
 In the summer of 1811, at a time when there 
 was no special religious awakening- my mind 
 became much affected and very tender in view 
 of ray hopeless condition as a sinner. What 
 circumstances or human instrumentality led 
 to this solicitude I do not now remember. I 
 felt a strong- conviction that the appointed 
 time had come to carry out my long- cherished 
 intention to seek Christ and secure the salva- 
 tion of my soul. 
 
 At the ag-e of twenty-one I found hope in the 
 mercy of the Saviour. I had always from my 
 childhood intended to become a Christian, 
 whenever I should find what I raig-ht esteem a 
 favorable time. 
 
 The exceeding- preciousness of the g-ospel 
 and the nearness of God inflamed my soul with 
 
188 
 
 a holy love. Hence arose my impression of 
 duty to publish the gfospel to my fellow men. 
 The love of Christ constrained me. 
 
 On the 29th of September, 1811, I was bap- 
 tized by Elder Salmon Morton into the fellow- 
 ship of the Baptist Church in Madison. My 
 mother and Mrs Polly Howard (wife of 
 Charles Howard) were baptized on the same 
 occasion. I had not yet disclosed to any per- 
 son my conviction of duty to enter the min- 
 istry. After my removal to Smithfield I 
 lived a number of years in a state of relig^ious 
 torpidity, "cold," backward, "in the dark," 
 and in general neglect of religious duties. 
 Occasionally, however, a few rays of divine 
 light and comfort would be shed abroad in my 
 soul. At such times my mind would be deep- 
 ly exercised with a sense of duty to preach 
 the gospel to my fellow men. Always refus- 
 ing to comply with this conviction of duty, re- 
 ligious gloom and depression would invariably 
 succeed. 
 
 I sought pardon and peace in vain. I prom- 
 ised the Lord, that if he would restore to me 
 the light of his countenance, I would no longer 
 refuse, if it were His will that I should preach. 
 In response the conviction became fastened 
 on my mind and remained constantly there, 
 that I had departed from my duty without 
 leave, and it was good enough for me to return 
 
189 
 
 without help. One evening" on my way home 
 from meeting-, while reflecting- on my spiritual 
 state, I resolved in my heart that without 
 waiting- long-er I would commence preaching- at 
 the first opportunity which should occur. The 
 duty was so plain to my mind, and I had al- 
 ready neg-lected it so long- with the vain hope 
 of recovering- lost graces before making the 
 attempt, I would delay no long-er, but casting- 
 myself on God, would do his bidding- to the 
 best of my ability. No sooner was this reso- 
 lution fairly formed than my spiritual dark- 
 ness was dissipated and my soul once more 
 became unclouded and joyful. With submis- 
 sion I had recovered the long- sought light and 
 peace. My wife had already been converted 
 in a revival, and on the following- Sabbath, 
 February 27, 1820, was baptized by Elder 
 Dyer D. Ransom. In the evening- of the same 
 day, a conference meeting- was held at the 
 house of Mr. Parkhurst in Siloam Before it 
 commenced, Deacon Sloan took me aside, told 
 me that he was convinced that it was my duty 
 to preach, and urg-ed me to make trial of my 
 g-ift that evening-. I dared not refuse, though 
 it was with great reluctance and trembling- 
 that I consented. The house was crowded. 
 After a few explanatory remarks by Deacon 
 Sloan, I read my text "I also will show mine 
 
190 
 
 opinion," Job 32: 10, and preached as well as 
 I could. 
 
 Elder Ransom was then eng-aj^ed as pastor 
 of the Church, to preach to them every other 
 Sabbath for one year. The Church subse- 
 quently approved my ofift, and still later voted 
 me a letter of license to preach the <^ospel 
 wherever an opportunity occurred, at the 
 same time inviting- me to preach to them on 
 such Sabbaths as Elder Ransom was not with 
 them, to which I acceeded. On the expiration 
 of Elder Ransom's term of service, I was 
 chosen his successor, to preach every Sab- 
 bath. I continued to labor here for more than 
 eig"ht years. My salary, on paper, rang-ed 
 from S35.00 to $75.00 per annum; but I never 
 in any one year received more than SIO.OO in 
 money. 
 
 Of late years my wife has frequently stated 
 that for one year's service all I received was a 
 quarter of mutton; but this, if a fact, has 
 long- since passed from recollection. 
 
 So much of the balance as was ever paid was 
 rendered in produce. 
 
 At the commencement of my labors with 
 this Church, my family consisted of four child- 
 ren, which number was increased to seven be- 
 fore I left. These I was compelled to support 
 mainly by manual labor. To do this, required 
 my utmost exertions throug-h the week, leav- 
 
191 
 
 ing- but little time for study or pastoral duties. 
 While at work I would think over the sub- 
 stance of m}^ sermons for the following- Sab- 
 bath; and at evening-, frequently by the lig-ht 
 of a pine knot torch, would eng-ag-e in the 
 study of the Scriptures. 
 
 In the autumn of 1821 I received ordination. 
 The Council was larg-e for those times, and 
 consisted of eig-ht ministers, and deleg-ates 
 from seven Churches. The ministers in at- 
 tendance were: Nathaniel Cole, Moderator; 
 Frederick Freeman, Clerk; Obed Warren, 
 Dyer D. Ransom, Calvin Philho, Randolph 
 Streeter, Nathaniel Otis and Nathan Peck. 
 The last named subsequently fell from the 
 ministry. The Council convened October 17, 
 at the house of Amos Bridg-e. After the 
 usual manner I related my Christian exper- 
 ience, my spiritual exercises in reference to 
 preaching- the g-ospel, and my views of Scrip- 
 ture doctrine. About an hour after Council 
 had retired for a private session, the Moder- 
 ator came to me with a request that I would 
 preach before the Council; adding- that one 
 member of it, Elder Phillio, declined to ac- 
 quiesce in my ordination unless he could first 
 hear me. This was soon after the "School of 
 the Prophets," now Madison University, had 
 been instituted at Hamilton; and Elder Phillio 
 was an earnest advocate of Ministerial Educa- 
 
102 
 
 tion. His objections to my ordination were 
 said to arise from his fears that I, having- but 
 a common school education, mi<jfht be too illit- 
 erate to preach. Most of the Council had al- 
 ready heard me preach, but he had not. The 
 Moderator and other friends advised me to 
 comply with the request and make the attempt 
 at once. I consented. They g-ranted me fif- 
 teen minutes in which to prepare. I walked 
 in meditation into a field as far as I could g-o 
 in half the time, and then returned. The 
 house was full of people. I announced for 
 my text the words of the Saviour, "Behold, 
 I send you forth as lambs among- wolves." 
 Luke 10: 3. The announcement of the text 
 called a smile to the countenance of many of 
 the audience, especially of the ministers pres- 
 ent. I spoke: First. Of the helplessness of 
 the ministry, "as lambs." Second. Their 
 dang-ers; ''among- wolves;" arising-, first, from 
 foes without the fold; and second, from false 
 brethren within the fold. Third. The en- 
 courag-ement received from the Great Shep- 
 herd. This subject arose entirely new in my 
 mind after I had consented to preach. The 
 Council afterwards unanimously agreed to 
 proceed to ordination. The services were 
 held on the following- day in the meeting- house 
 at Siloam, then in an unfinished condition; 
 Elder Nathaniel Cole preached from the words 
 
193 
 
 "Let a man so account of us as of the minis- 
 ters of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries 
 of God." I Cor. 4: 1. 
 
 A few weeks after, I chanced to meet Elder 
 Phillio at a Ministerial Conference in Penner. 
 After I had preached there also, he remarked 
 to me, "Well, brother Brown, I think you will 
 be able to preach, Let me give you a word of 
 advice. Never attempt to say all you can on 
 any subject at any one time; and when you get 
 throug-h, always stop." These hints were 
 beneficial to me in subsequent years; and 
 might be observed wnth benefit by some in the 
 ministry at the present day. 
 
 Not long afterwards the meeting house at 
 Siloam was completed. It consisted only of 
 an audience room without vestibule or galler- 
 ies, thirty by forty feet, closely seated; and 
 during my continuance as pastor there, was 
 generally well filled with hearers on the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 I had no theological instructor, no library 
 save a Bible, a Watt's Hymn Book, and a 
 pocket edition of Brown's Concordance. With 
 these simple aids I spent the next two years 
 in studying the Scriptures and committing 
 them to memory. In doing this, I so far neg- 
 lected secular pursuits that, wnth my very in- 
 adequate salary, I expended nearly all my per- 
 sonal property, including my only cow^ and a 
 
V 
 
 span of horses, in tlie support of my family. 
 
 At leno-th I was aroused as from an enchant- 
 ment, to a sense of the condition of mv family, 
 and hired myself to one of the deacons of the 
 Church, to assist in carpenter work, for sev- 
 enty-live cents per day. I labored for him 
 thirty days, in which time I mastered the 
 rudiments of the trade sufficiently to com- 
 mence the business as a workman. While I 
 remained here, about six years, I labored at 
 this trade through the summer seasons, build- 
 ing- barns, houses and mills. Three winters I 
 took charge of a saw mill; the other winters I 
 chopped and drew wood to market, boiled pot- 
 ash, etc., preaching every Sabbath. My labors 
 were very severe; I had no rest except occas- 
 sionally on a stormy day. Sabbaths were the 
 most laborious and fatiguing of all. 
 
 During my stay with these people I attended 
 many funerals to which I frequently traveled 
 five or six miles on foot, sometimes going di- 
 rectly from my work, and returning to it again 
 the same day. As these services were never 
 rewarded, they only increased my pecuniary 
 embarrassments. 
 
 Duri.ng this pastorate the Church and com- 
 munity were blest with only one general re- 
 vival of religion. I preserved no record of my 
 labors or their results while there, and can 
 now give but few items from memory. Dur- 
 
195 
 
 inof the six years that I remained after I was 
 ordained the pastor, I baptized sixty or more 
 persons. Universalism and drunkenness pre- 
 vailed there to a great extent, making- the field 
 peculiarly hard for spiritual culture, and ren- 
 dering* my labors almost as barren of moral 
 as of financial fruits. 
 
 My third son, William, was converted and 
 baptized at the age of ten years. He subse- 
 quently entered the ministry, in which his 
 labors have been crowned with many blessings 
 and tokens of the Master's approval. 
 
 Early in 1831 I took him to the Literary and 
 Theological Institution at Hamilton, to be ed- 
 ucated for the ministry, and, as was supposed 
 for the work of a foreign missionary. He was 
 my only child then converted. Deacon Olm- 
 sted adopted him into his family as a bene- 
 ficiary and protege during his educational 
 course. To give him up caused me a severe 
 struggle. When I had taken him there, and 
 was returning home, my mind was so deeply 
 absorbed in reflection on the subject, as to be 
 almost wholly insensible to everything else. 
 I earnestly longed and prayed that God would 
 give me another of my children born anew into 
 the kingdom of grace, to take his place. To 
 the praise of the riches of His grace, I have 
 to record that within six months he gave me 
 
three, and still others before I removed from 
 the town. 
 
 The revival spirit at no time f(-r.-^v)ok us, 
 conversions bein^r frequent; and ai)out 1833, 
 another considerable revival occurred. Dur- 
 int)- the first five \'ears of this pastorate, I 
 baptized one hundred and twenty-six, most 
 of whom had been converted under my 
 ministry. 
 
 During- this pastorate of seven years, and 
 the five vears next following-, besides dis- 
 charg-ing- my pastoral duties I labored in sev- 
 enty or eig-hty protracted meeting-s. In these 
 meeting's m}^ labors extended from Albany to 
 Cayug-a Lake, and from the northern bound- 
 ary of Oneida county to central Pennsylvania. 
 
 The young-est person converted, of whom I 
 had any knowledg-e was my son Perry, then 
 in his eigfhth year- The chief instrument of 
 his conversion was a pious lady school teacher. 
 He was so small as to find it necessary to 
 stand on a seat or bench while he related his 
 experience to the Church a few months after- 
 wards. The conversion of children, now so 
 common, was then a rare event, and g-enerally 
 reg-arded with a degree of distrust bordering- 
 on incredulity. Owing to his youthfulness 
 both his mother and I were reluctant to con- 
 sent to his baptism. On many occasions he 
 manifested an earnest wish to receive the or- 
 
197 
 
 dinance. On returning- from school one day, 
 he said, "Mother, when you will let me be 
 baptized, my mind will be easy." We inter- 
 posed no further objections. Not long- after 
 this he related his experience before the 
 Church for baptism. I subjected him, in their 
 presence, to a ri^id examination. Among- 
 other questions, I asked: 
 
 "Why do you want to be baptized?" 
 
 "Because Christ was baptized, and I want 
 to follow him," was his reply. 
 
 "Would you not rather be sprinkled, than 
 g-o into the water?" 
 
 "No sir. The Saviour was baptized in the 
 river, and I want to do as he did." 
 
 These and many similar replies were wholly 
 of his own mind. All my objections were re- 
 moved; and the Church received and I bap- 
 tized him. 
 
 During- my pastorate at Augusta, one win- 
 try day, brother Eden Green, whom I had 
 baptized from the Cong-reg-ational Church, 
 and my son Perry, were removing- ice from 
 the stream preparatory for baptism, when 
 Rensselaer Wickham, a rather eccentric, 
 quick-spoken man, a member of the Cong-re- 
 g-ational Church, chanced to pass the place, 
 and beg-an some trifling- raillery on their em- 
 ployment, inquiring- if John had to cut the ice 
 from Jordan, etc. They, in turn, asked for 
 
198 
 
 his Scripture proofs of infant baptism. "Well, 
 said he, in his sputtering- manner of speech, 
 "I don't know as there are any; but it does 
 seem as if the poor little thintrs outrht to have 
 something- done for 'em." 
 
 In June, 1853, failing- health compelled me 
 reluctantly to retire from the active duties 
 of the ministry. I therefore resig-ned my 
 charg-e, and removed my family, now consist- 
 ing- of myself and wife, to Clinton, where I 
 had a son-in-law residing-. 
 
 I still continued to preach occasionally as 
 circumstances required, and my health en- 
 abled me. 
 
 In the following- February I removed to 
 Madison, my former home, and purchased a 
 house and a few acres of land, in the cultiva- 
 tion of which I spent most of my time for sev- 
 eral years. 
 
 While living- here I preached for a few 
 months as supply to the Church in Aug-usta, 
 now reduced to a small and feeble band. This 
 was the last reg-ular preaching* they ever had, 
 and not long- afterwards the Church formally 
 disbanded. 
 
 Two years after my removal to Madison I 
 sold my place there and w^ent to Hamilton, 
 where my son Perry was living-. (Profes- 
 sor P. P. Brown, Jr., Madison University), 
 with whom I boug-ht and occupied a home. 
 
199 
 
 While living- here I supplied the Church in 
 Erieville for eleven months, at which place 
 with my wife I spent the winter of 1856-7. 
 
 In the spring- of 1858 I was recalled to Mad- 
 ison, after the resignation of Rev. L. C. Bates, 
 and for the second time accepted the pastoral 
 care of the Church which I retained for three 
 years, when under the accumulated infirmi- 
 ties of ag-e and disease — having- now reached 
 my seventieth year — on the first of March, 
 1860, I was succeeded by my son-in-law. Rev. 
 Carlos Swift, in whose family we spent the 
 following- summer, in the old parsonage which 
 had twice been our home. I finished my sec- 
 ond pastorate in Madison just forty years 
 from the day I preached my first sermon, and 
 preached my last farewell — the closing- up of 
 my ministerial life— from the same text I used 
 on that occasion. 
 
 During- this summer I preached two or three 
 months to the Church in Stockbridge. The 
 first of October following-, I returned to Ham- 
 ilton, and ag-ain lived in the house which I 
 jointly owned and occupied with my son 
 Perry. Here, eig-hteen months later, on April 
 2, 1862, my wife, after a very painful but brief 
 illness of two weeks, ended a laborious, self- 
 denying-, exemplary and useful life. We had 
 traveled life's journey pleasantly tog-ether for 
 fifty-two years. On the following- Sunday, 
 
200 
 
 the sixth, her funeral was attended in Madi- 
 son, whither we carried her remains. The 
 sermon was by Professor E. DodiJfe, of Madi- 
 son University, from Heb. 4:'). (Now, March 
 ^), 1872, and for some time past, President of 
 the University). We buried her in the grave- 
 yard on the "Indian Opening-," near the for- 
 mer site of the old Baptist meeting-house, be- 
 tween Madison and Solsville, where sleep 
 many of the friends and associates of our early 
 years, and where I wish my own dust at last 
 to be laid. 
 
 CHILDREN OF REV. PHILLIP PERRY AND 
 BETSY DICKEY BROWN. 
 
 Ha r ley Philander': was born in Augusta, 
 July 26, 1810; was twice married, and died at 
 Rapids City, Illinois, May 31, 1863. A few 
 years before his death he was hopefully con- 
 verted and closed his life as an exemplary and 
 highly esteemed minister of a Campbellite 
 Church. 
 
 Charles Edzviyi: was born at Augusta, Feb- 
 ruary 23, 1813. (His life is given in an auto- 
 biography in this book.) 
 
 William: was born in Smithfield, January 1, 
 1816. 
 
 He became a Christian in childhood and 
 went, when fourteen years of age, to Hamilton 
 
201 
 
 to attend the Literary and Theolog-ical Insti- 
 tute, becoming- a member of the family of Dea- 
 con Olmsted, where he was boarded for such 
 service as he could give, out of school hours. 
 
 Evenings, studying- his lesson in Greek, his 
 position was "sixth from the candle." 
 
 His mother said of him, "William was al- 
 ways a g-ood boy." 
 
 He was ordained to the ministry in 1837, 
 and offered his services as a foreig-n mission- 
 ary, but for want of funds in the treasury of 
 the missionary board, was not sent. 
 
 His life work was as pastor of Baptist 
 Churches in New York — in Richfield, New- 
 port, Eaton, Pittsford, Hartford, St. Edward 
 and Rockwood, from 1837 to 1869. 
 
 In 1837 he was married to Miss Louisa E. 
 Wrig-ht, at Westford. 
 
 In 1869 his health failed and he g-ave up his 
 pastoral work and started west in the hope of 
 reg-aining- it. Stopping- at New Hartford with 
 Dr. and Mrs. Griswold, old time friends, he 
 suddenly became worse and died Aug-ust 9, 
 1869, and was buried at Newport. 
 
 He was a man of superior ability as a min- 
 ister, of a g-enial, kindly and sociable disposi- 
 tion; beautifully sincere and earnest in his 
 work, and was remarkably successful in re- 
 storing- harmony and reuniting* Churches in 
 which discord and dissention had arisen. 
 
202 
 
 Of four children, two sons and two daiij^fh- 
 ters, two are livin<i|-, at present, 1%7. Mrs. 
 Lewis E. (Turley, at Troy, New York, and 
 Mrs. Frank H. Woodworth, at San Dieg-o, 
 California. 
 
 Phillip Perry Brozun, Jr. Sketch of his life, 
 from an Obituary, published in a St. Louis 
 paper at the time of his death in that city in 
 April, 1881. 
 
 *'The Second Baptist Church of St. Louis, 
 has met with a great loss in the recent death 
 of General Brown. Born in Smithiield, New 
 York, October 8, 1823, reared in a Christian 
 home, at the ag-e of eig-ht years he was bap- 
 tized into the fellowship of the Baptist church, 
 by his honored father, Rev. P. P. Brown, so 
 well remembered in Central New York. In 
 the covenant meeting- preceding- his death, 
 General Brown rose and with much feeling- 
 said, "This is my jubilee; for fifty years I 
 have been a member of a Baptist church, and 
 can remember no life outside of it." 
 
 At an early ag-e he eng-ag-ed in teaching- in 
 his native State, but his health failing-, he 
 went to Kentucky, where he soon recovered 
 his health and resumed his profession. In 
 December, 1845, he married Miss Sarah Jack- 
 son, of Louisville, Kentucky, who with two 
 children survives him. Soon after his mar- 
 riag-e he went to the Indian Territory, under 
 
203 
 the auspices of the Southern Indian Mission 
 Board, and took charg-e of Armstrong- Acad- 
 emy, a school for the Choctaws. For five 
 years he labored with g-reat success as teach- 
 er and missionary, and translated the greater 
 part of the New Testament into the Choctaw 
 lang-uage. These were years of joy to his 
 heart, and many were broug-ht to Christ 
 throug-h his efforts. In April, 1851, he re- 
 sig-ned and accepted the Principalship of the 
 Preparatory Department of Shurtleff Colleg-e, 
 Alton, Illinois, in order that he mig-ht at the 
 same time pursue his studies in the Colleg-e, 
 and then return to the Indians better fitted for 
 his work. But his wish was not realized, for 
 in May, 1853, he returned to New York and 
 entered Madison University in the third term 
 of Sophomore year, at the same time contin- 
 uing- his work as teacher in the Grammar 
 School. 
 
 He g-raduated in 1855 and was principal of 
 the University Grammar school until Aug-ust, 
 1862, when he became Colonel of the One Hun- 
 dred and Fifty-seventh New York Infantry. 
 He commanded his regiment at Gettysburg-, 
 in the First Brig-ade, Third Division, Eleventh 
 Army Corps, under Major General Carl 
 Schurz, the first day, and Major General O. 
 O. Howard, the second and third days of the 
 battle. 
 
204 
 
 In 18()5 he was appointed Colonel of the 
 Seventh Reo^iment of Hancock's Veteran Re- 
 serve Corps, and commanded the Military 
 Post at Philadelphia. He was breveted Bri*^^- 
 adier General, for gallant and meritorious ser- 
 vices and tendered an appointment as Colonel 
 in the Regular Army at the close of the war. 
 This he declined, preferring- the pursuits of 
 civil life, and in 1866 he came to Saint Louis 
 and engaged in business. 
 
 General Brown was an accurate scholar and 
 a deep thinker. Thoroughly rooted in the 
 truths of the gospel, it was his constant aim 
 to exemplify them in his life. He was pre- 
 eminently a pure man, no unchaste word ever 
 escaping his lips. He carried into mature 
 years the sweet sincerity of childhood, and his 
 whole deportment w^as that of a Christian gen- 
 tleman. It was his special work to labor for 
 the good of young men, of whom he was par- 
 ticularly fond, and who returned his affection 
 with their fullest confidence. Por years he 
 stood in the vestibule of the Second church 
 that he might welcome young men who were 
 strangers in the city, and make them feel at 
 home in God's house, and many such have been 
 brought to Christ and saved from the perils 
 of a great city by his kind, w^ise counsel. In 
 every department of church work he was an 
 efficient helper and counsellor. 
 
205 
 
 Thoug-h firmly trusting- in Christ as a per- 
 sonal Saviour, the fear of death at times 
 greatly troubled him; but as he entered the 
 valley of the shadow, to his pastor he said: 
 "All fear of death is o-one; the way is brig-ht; 
 I am happy." Two hours later he fell quietly 
 asleep in Jesus. 
 
 Into the church, where his presence had so 
 long- been a benediction, his remains were 
 borne by the strong- arms of young- men whom 
 he loved and who loved him, on Sunday after- 
 noon, April 10th, and appropriate services 
 were conducted by Dr. Schofield and the pas- 
 tor, in the presence of a larg-e and tearful as- 
 sembly. We laid his body to rest in the beau- 
 tiful city of the dead, where soon a monument 
 to his memory will be erected by the young- 
 men of the Second Church." 
 
 Adonircui Judson Brozvu'. was born in Smith- 
 field, March 7, 1826. In 1845 he came to Iowa, 
 joining- his brother Charles, at LeClaire. He 
 beg-an teaching- school when sixteen years of 
 ag-e, in New York, and taug-ht in Iowa three 
 years when he first came west. He owned 
 and operated the ferry across the Mississippi 
 between LeClaire and Port Byron, beg-inning- 
 with a flat boat which had to be rowed by hand 
 until a horse power boat could be built. 
 
 While teachino-, one of his scholars was 
 
200 
 
 ISIiss Paulina Rowe, a ver\' l)ri<4ht, handsome 
 and attractive little woman, who became his 
 wife in 1847. 
 
 In 1S50 he put up a l)uildin*^- in Port Byron 
 near the ferry landini^f, and opened a small 
 store. Later he and William H. Devore 
 formed a partnership under the firm name of 
 Brown and Devore, doino^ a general mercan- 
 tile business, on quite a lar«-e scale, operating" 
 a flouring- mill, packing pork, and handling- 
 coal for the Mississippi river steam-boats. 
 They did a large business, furnishing- sup- 
 plies for Minnesota and Wisconsin lumber- 
 men on the upper Mississippi and tributaries. 
 
 He w^as a very capable business man, indus- 
 trious, methodical and systematic, of hig-h 
 character. What he said could always be de- 
 pended on. Brow^n and Devore carried on a 
 successful, prosperous business w^hile others 
 failed. Mr. Brown was a good neighbor, kind 
 and obliging, a public spirited citizen, and a 
 model husband and father. He contracted 
 consumption and died at Port Byron, Illinois, 
 February 11, 1864. 
 
 Wilbur Mission Broxvn: was born in Au- 
 gusta, July 2, 1833. Educated at Madison 
 University, Hamilton, New York, graduating- 
 in 1856. Read law with Goodwin and Mitchell 
 at Hamilton and later wnth Pratt and Mitchell 
 
207 
 
 at Syracuse, becoming- a member of the firm 
 of Pratt, Mitchell and Brown, who were for 
 many years prominent and leading- lawyers 
 of Central New York. He was a fine speaker. 
 Close attention to business undermined his 
 health and he was an invalid for years before 
 his death, w^hich occurred at Syracuse, Jan- 
 uary 27, 1898, unmarried, leaving- property to 
 the amount of nearly two hundred thousand 
 dollars to his relatives and friends. He was 
 a man of superior ability, a tireless worker, 
 genial, kindly, g-enerous and sociable, stand- 
 ing- hig-h in his profession, of high character 
 personally and professionally. 
 
 Sarah: w^as born in Smithfield, May 30, 1818. 
 She was married, February 10, 1841, at Mad- 
 ison, New York, to Emerson Brown, of Litch- 
 field. Thoug-h of the same name, her husband 
 was not related to our family. For nine years 
 after marriag-e her husband lived in Utica, 
 working- at his trade as a mason. They then 
 went to Litchfield, and boug-ht the old family 
 homestead, where she passed the remainder 
 of her life, and died October 2, 1879. She was 
 an earnest devoted Christian woman, a faith- 
 ful Church worker, and a loving- wife, mother 
 and home maker. 
 
 An7i: was born in Smithfield, October 22, 
 1820. She was married to Dr. A. K. White, 
 of Smyrna, who died a year later. 
 
208 
 
 She went to Kentucky as a teacher, and in 
 1850 was married to William Kelly, of Hop- 
 kinsville, a Kentucky ])lanter, who died Jan- 
 uary 3, 1864, leaving- her for the second time 
 a widow and childless. 
 
 Mr. Kelly was a slave holder of the Shelby- 
 St. Clare type described by Mrs. Stowe in 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin. With his wnfe he visited 
 her familv in New York State in 1853. These 
 relatives were nearly all radical Abolitionists, 
 and an actual livinof and breathino- owner and 
 holder of slaves, was to them something- ab- 
 horrent. But Mr. Kelly's g-enial, courtly 
 manner disarmed hostility and made admiring- 
 friends of the members of the family whom he 
 met. Mrs. Kelly was a very capable, accomp- 
 lished woman She died at the home of her 
 brother, Charles, at Lime Spring's, Iowa, in 
 1871. 
 
 Elvira: was born at Smithfield, December 3, 
 1829. On January 6, 1852, she was married 
 at Holland Patent, New York, to the Rev. 
 Carlos Swnft, for many years a successful and 
 worthy pastor of Baptist Churches in New 
 York, Minnesota and Illinois. 
 
 Mrs. Swift was a zealous, earnest and de- 
 voted missionary worker, g-ifted with a fine 
 intellect, a winning- personalty and a pleasing- 
 voice; for many years Corresponding- Secre- 
 
209 
 
 tary of the Women's Baptist Home Mission-, 
 ary Society, and was active and helpful in 
 establishing- the Women's Baptist Training- 
 School in Chicag-o. 
 
 She was a successful teacher of Men's Bible 
 Classes, often numbering- more than a hun- 
 dred members. The work she loved best, 
 was at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicag-o, 
 which was g-enuinely Evang-elistic She was 
 loved, trusted and leaned upon by those as- 
 sociated with her in these fields of labor, and 
 now that ag-e and health no long-er permit pub- 
 lic work, she exemplifies the quiet g-races of a 
 Christian in the homes of her children. 
 
Chaptick XVIII. 
 
 FAMILY RECORD OF CHARLES E. BROWN. 
 
 My grandfather, Nathaniel Brown, was 
 born in the town of Leicester, Massachusetts, 
 November 5, 1767. Died in Hainbur,i>-, Erie 
 county, New York, October 1, 1854. 
 
 My grandmother Brown, whose maiden 
 name was Anna Perry, was born in Vermont, 
 April 16, 1770. Died in the town of Augusta, 
 Oneida county. New York, February 4, 1826. 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 Sally, born in Bennington, Vermont, Jan- 
 uary 3, 1788. Died in Aug-usta, New York, 
 March 20, 1805. 
 
 Phillip Perry, (the name of his maternal 
 grandfather), born in Benning-ton, Vermont, 
 September 17, 1790. Died in Madison, New 
 York, September 23, 1876. 
 
 Nathaniel, born in the town of Kirkland, 
 Oneida county, New York, February 9, 1794. 
 
 [210] 
 
211 
 
 Died in Manlius, Onondag^a county, New 
 York, April 24, 1852. 
 
 Polly, born in Kirkland, New York, July 31, 
 1797. Died in Hamburg-, New York, probably 
 1856. 
 
 Sophia, born in Kirkland New York, May 
 
 25, 1800. Died February 4, 1804. 
 
 William, born in Augusta, New York, April 
 5, 1803. Died in Eaton, New York, January 
 11, 1841. 
 
 Parley, born in Aug-usta, New York, Jan- 
 uary 20, 1806. Died in Augusta, September 
 
 26, 1826. 
 
 Rufus, born in Augusta, New York, Novem- 
 ber 8, 1808. Died in Solsville, about 1885. 
 
 My mother, Betsy Dickey, was born in 
 Wethersfield, Vermont, October 23, 1788. 
 She had four brothers, Joseph, William, Dan- 
 iel, and Adam, and one sister, all born in 
 Wethersfield, Vermont. All died in the State 
 of New York except Adam, who died in Iowa. 
 
 Phillip Perry Brown and Betsy Dickey were 
 married in Augusta, New York, September 
 27, 1809. My mother died in Hamilton, New 
 York, April 2, 1862. 
 
212 
 
 RECORD OF THKIK CHILDREN. 
 
 Harley Philander — Born in Aut^usta, New 
 York, July 30, 1810. Died at Rapids City, 
 Illinois, May 31, 1863. 
 
 Charles Edwin — Born in Aiio-usta, New 
 York, February 23, 1813. Died at Ottumwa, 
 Iowa, July 23, 1901. 
 
 William — Born in Smithfield, New York, 
 January 1, 1816. Died at New Hartford, New 
 York, Aug-ust 9, 1869, 
 
 Sarah — Born in Smithfield, New York, May 
 30, 1818. Died in Litchfield, New York, Octo- 
 ber 2, 1879. 
 
 Ann — Born in Smithfield, New York, Octo- 
 ber 22, 1820. Died at Lime Springs, Iowa, 
 September 28, 1870. 
 
 Phillip Perry, Jr. — Born in Smithfield, New 
 York, October 8, 1823. Died in Saint Louis, 
 in April, 1881. 
 
 Adoniran Judson — Born in Smithfield, New 
 York, March 7, 1826, Died at Port Byron, 
 Illinois, February 11, 1864. 
 
 Elvira — Born in Smithfield, New York, Dec- 
 ember 3, 1829. 
 
 Wilbur M. — Born in Augusta, New York, 
 July 3, 1833. Died at Syracuse, New York, 
 January 27, 1898. 
 
213 
 
 FAMILY RECORD OF MY WIFE, FRANCES LYON- 
 
 Benjamin Lyon — Born in Rhode Island, 
 April 5. 1770. Died in Russia, New York, 
 October 24, 1826. 
 
 Marg-aret Duncan — Born December 23, 1780. 
 Died in Openheim, New York, July 5, 1820. 
 
 Benjamin Lyon and Margaret Duncan were 
 married the seventh of May, 1801. 
 
 CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN LYON AND 
 MARGARET DUNCAN. 
 
 Charles W.— Born March 4, 1802, Died in 
 Watertown, New York, February, 1866. 
 
 Eleanor— Born March 20, 1803. Died in 
 March, 1806. 
 
 Julia Ann— Born June 5, 1804. Died Aug- 
 ust, 1865. 
 
 Eliza — Born September 30, 1806. Died 
 December, 1871. 
 
 Charlotte— Born September 29, 1808. Died 
 Aug-ust, 1829. 
 
 Mary— Born July 8, 1811. Died June, 1888. 
 
 Frances — Born April 15, 1813. Died June 
 12, 1887. 
 
 John — Born February 7, 1815. Died Dec- 
 ember, 1831. 
 
214 
 
 Geor^re Duncan- Born February 20, 1817. 
 Died March, 1856. 
 
 Second marria^fe. Benjamin Lyon and Ros- 
 anna Hall were married in Russia, New York, 
 May 26, 1822. 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 Marg-aret M.— Born March 7, 1823. Died, 
 Muscatine, Iowa, Aug-ust 11, 1904. 
 
 Lucretia Caroline— Born October 19, 1824. 
 
 Benjamin and Elisha (twins) — Born July 17, 
 1826. 
 
 Charles E. Brown and Prances Lyon were 
 married at Little Falls, New York, Septem- 
 ber, 26, 1838. 
 
 FAMILY OF CHARLES E. AND FRANCES 
 LYON BROWN. 
 
 Benjamin Perry — Born in Norway, Herki- 
 mer county. New York, July 30, 1839. Died, 
 by drowning, near Maquoketa, Iowa, June 20, 
 
 1848. 
 
 The following- extract is from the record in 
 the family Bible, in father's hand writing: 
 
 "Benjamin Perry Brown was drowned in 
 
215 
 
 the Maquoketa river near Maquoketa, Jackson 
 county, Iowa, June 20, 1848. 
 
 "On the morning- of the day on which he 
 was drowned, he read with his parents and 
 young-er brother the first chapter of Mark." 
 
 "When floating on Life's troubled sea 
 By storms and tempests driven, 
 
 Hope with her radiant finger points 
 To brighter scenes in Heaven." 
 
 "She bids the anguished heart rejoice, 
 
 Though earthly ties are riven, 
 W^e still may hope to meet again 
 
 In yonder peaceful Heaven." 
 
 At the instance of his mother this verse 
 was cut on his tomb stone: 
 
 "Shed not for him the bitter tear; 
 
 Or give the heart to vain regret, 
 'Tis but the casket that lies here; 
 
 The gem that filled it, sparkles yet." 
 
 Charles Perry — Born in Warren, Herkimer 
 county. New York, October 30, 1840. 
 
 James DeGrush — Born in LeClaire town- 
 ship, Scott county, Iowa, February 9, 1846. 
 
 Georg-e Lyon and William Carlos, (twins), 
 
216 
 
 Born in Norway, Herkimer county, New York, 
 July 29, 1853. Georg-e L died from injuries 
 received while couplino" cars at St. Paul Junc- 
 tion, Minnesota, September 1, 1871. 
 
 DEATHS. 
 
 Rev. Charles E. Brown, born February 23, 
 1813. Died July 23, 1901. 
 
 Prances Lyon Brown, born April 15, 1813. 
 Died June 12, 1887. 
 
 MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN 
 
 Charles Perry Brown and Miss Adeline P. 
 Fall, married by me, at Vernon Springs, 
 Howard county, Iowa, Aug-ust 30, 1866. 
 
 James DeGrush Browm and Miss Ella T. 
 Dye, at Owatonna, Minnesota, married by Rev. 
 Enoch Dye, on May 13, 1874. 
 
 William Carlos Brown and Miss Mary Ella 
 Hewitt, married by meat Lime Springs, How- 
 ard county, Iowa, June 3, 1874. 
 
 In 1875 three grand-children, all daughters, 
 were born, one in each family. 
 
 Virinie F., to James and Ella, at Lime 
 Springs, Iowa, on April 5. 
 
 Georgia Frances, to Will and Mary Ella, at 
 Wilton, Iowa, July 23. 
 
217 
 
 Edith Adeline, to Charles and Addie, at Ot- 
 tumwa, Iowa, Aug-ust 3. 
 
 FAMILY RECORD OF CHARLES PERRY BROWN. 
 
 Charles Perry Brown, born October 30, 
 1840, in the town of Warren, in Herkimer 
 county. New York. 
 
 Adeline Phoebe Fall, born near Beloit, 
 Wisconsin, February 10, 1849. 
 
 Charles Perry Brown and Miss Adeline 
 Phoebe Fall were married Aug-ust 30, 1866, at 
 Vernon Spring-s, Howard county, Iowa, by 
 Rev. Charles E. Brown. 
 
 CHILDREN OF CHARLES PERRY AND ADELINE 
 FALL BROWN. 
 
 Frances Lyon, born at Cresco, Iowa, 
 October 6, 1868; died at McGreg-or, Iowa, 
 Aug-ust 31, 1869, and buried in the family 
 lot of Rev. Georg-e W. Fall at Cresco, Iowa. 
 
 Benjamin Perry, born at McGreg-or, 
 Iowa, December 11, 1869. 
 
 Charles Edwin, born at Ottumwa, Iowa, 
 November 9, 1872, and died there October 14, 
 1874. 
 
218 
 
 Edith Adeline, horn at Ottumwa, Iowa, 
 Auo;-ust 3, 1875; died at the Glockner Sani- 
 tarium, Colorado Springrs, Colorado, June 6, 
 1893. 
 
 Louise Fall, born at Ottumwa, Iowa, Jan- 
 uary 28, 1881. 
 
 MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN AND BIRTH OF 
 GRAND-CHILDREN. 
 
 Benjamin Perry Brown and Miss Laura 
 Kendall, were married at Ottumwa, Iowa, May 
 8, 1895, by Rev. L. F. Berry. 
 
 CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN P. AND LAURA 
 K. BROWN. 
 
 Prances, born at Ottumwa, Iowa, March 4, 
 1897. 
 
 Mary Louise, born at Ottumwa, Iowa, Aug"- 
 ust 20, 1905. 
 
 Louise Fall Brown and Lester M. Linton 
 were married May 2, 1905, at Ottumwa, Iowa, 
 by Rev. P. A. Johnson. 
 
 DEATHS. 
 
 Adeline Fall Brown, died at Boulder, Col- 
 orado, April 20, 1903. 
 
219 
 
 Frances Lyon, died at McGregor, Iowa, 
 August 31, 1869. 
 
 Charles Edwin, died at Ottumwa, Iowa, Oct- 
 ober 14, 1874. 
 
 Edith Adeline, died at Colorado Springs, 
 Colorado, June 6, L893. 
 
 Prances Lyon is buried in the family lot of 
 her grandfather. Rev. George W. Fall, in the 
 Cresco cemetery. 
 
 Adeline Fall Brown, Charles Edwin and 
 Edith Adeline, are buried in the family lot in 
 the Ottumwa cemetery, at Ottumwa, Iowa. 
 
 FAMILY RECORD OF JAMES D. BROWN. 
 
 James D. Brown was born near LeClaire, 
 Scott county, Iowa, February 9, 1846. 
 
 Ella T. Dye was born at North Brookfield, 
 Madison county. New York, December 30, 
 1853. 
 
 James D. Brown and Miss Ella T. Dye were 
 married at Owatonna, in Steele county, Min- 
 nesota, May 13, 1874, by Rev. E. P. Dye, 
 father of the bride. 
 
220 
 
 CHILDREN OF JAMES 1). AND ELI>A T. 
 DYE imoWN. 
 
 Vinnie Frances, born at Lime Sprin<rs, in 
 Howard county, Iowa, April 5, 1875. 
 
 Georg-e Edwin, horn at Tvime Sprintrs, Iowa, 
 May 30, 1876. 
 
 Frances Margaret, born at Lime Spring's, 
 Iowa, September 1, 1879. Died at Lime 
 Spring-s, Iowa, September 20, 1882. 
 
 Frank Log-an, born at Lime Spring's, Iowa, 
 January 29, 1887. 
 
 MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN AND BIRTH OF 
 GRAND-CHILDREN. 
 
 George Edwin Brown and Jennie Olivia 
 Johnson were married in Ottumwa, Iowa, 
 March 4, 1903, by Rev. F. G. Davies. 
 
 CHILDREN OF GEORGE EDWIN AND JENNIE 
 JOHNSON BROWN. 
 
 Lloyd William Brown, born March 2, 1904. 
 Marion Frances Brown, born April 24, 1906. 
 
 FAMILY RECORD OF WILLIAM C. BROWN. 
 
 William C. Brown, born at Norway, Her- 
 kimer county. New York, July 29, 1853. 
 
221 
 
 Mary Ella Hewitt, born at McHenry, in 
 McHenry county, Illinois, July 19, 1854. 
 
 William C. Brown and Miss Mary Ella 
 Hewitt were married at Lime Springs, in 
 Howard county, Iowa, June 3, 1874, by Rev. 
 C. E. Brown. 
 
 CHILDREN OF WILLIAM C. AND MARY E. 
 HEWITT BROWN. 
 
 Georg-ia Prances, born at Wilton, Iowa, 
 July 23, 1875. 
 
 Charles Edwin, born at Burling-ton, Iowa, 
 September 11, 1877. Died at Lime Spring's, 
 Iowa, September 11, 1882. 
 
 Lura Belle, born at Lime Springs, Iowa, 
 July 17, 1880. Died at Beardstown, Illinois, 
 February 25, 1882. 
 
 Bertha Adelaide, born at Lime Spring-s, 
 Iowa, September 2, 1882. 
 
 Marg-aret Heddens, born at Saint Joseph, 
 Missouri, March 28, 1891. 
 
 MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN AND BIRTH OF 
 GRAND-CHILDREN. 
 
 Georg-ia Prances Brown and Dr. Prank 
 
222 
 
 li^Uis Pierce, were married in Chicaj^'o, April 
 12, 1899. by Rev. Percival Mclntire. 
 
 CHILDREN OF DK. P^RANK E. AND GEORGIA 
 BROWN PIERCE. 
 
 William Brown Pierce, born in Chicag-o, 
 March 6, 1900. 
 
 John Henry Pierce, born in Chicaj^o, July 
 8, 1906. 
 
 Bertha Adelaide Brown and Dr. Kellog-g- 
 Speed, were married in Chicag-o, April 12, 
 1904, by Rev. John H. Hopkins. 
 
 CHILDREN OF DR. KELLOGG AND BERTHA 
 A. B. SPEED. 
 
 Bertha Brown Speed, born in Chicago, 
 October 8, 1905. 
 
 DEATHS OF CHILDREN OF WILLIAM C. AND 
 ELLA H. BROWN. 
 
 Lura Belle, died at Beardstown, Illinois, 
 February 25, 1882; and is buried in the family 
 lot at Lime Springs, Iowa. 
 
 Charles Edwin, died at Lime Springs, Iowa, 
 September 11, 1882; and is buried there in the 
 family lot in the cemetery. 
 
^^ ■ ^ 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 OF 
 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE. 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. J. W. V/EDDELL, D. D. 
 
 OCTOBER 6, 1901. 
 
 AT CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH, 
 
 DAVENPORT, IOWA. 
 
 Letter from Wilbur M. Brown, referring 
 TO original edition of these recollections. 
 
 ^' 
 
JOURNAL OP THE HOUSE. 
 
 Halt, of the Hou.se oi" Representatives, / 
 Des Moines. Iowa, Thursday, February 13,1902. \ 
 
 House met pursuant to adjournment, Speak- 
 er Eaton presiding-. 
 
 Prayer was offered by Rev. E. G. Beyer, of 
 Mavnard, Iowa. 
 
 report of committee appointed to draft RESOI.UTIONS 
 OF RESPECT TO THE MEMORY OF HON. CHAS. E. BROWN. 
 
 Mr. Speaker — Your committee appointed to draft reso- 
 lutions of respect to the niemor)' of the Hon. Charles E. 
 Brown, respectfully submit the following: 
 
 Whereas, Rev. Charles E. Brown, an honored mem- 
 ber of the Seventeenth General Assembly of Iowa from 
 Howard county, died in Ottumwa, July 23, 1901, and 
 
 Whereas, The life and character of the deceased were 
 such as to command our love and esteem, and his public 
 services to the state and countr3^ were of such distinction 
 as to demand the respect and gratitude of his fellow citi- 
 zens; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That in his death the state has lost an able 
 conscientious citizen, a man who suffered the inconven- 
 ience of pioneer life in the cause of religion and state, that 
 we extend to his children our sincere sympathy in their 
 affliction. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered in the Journ- 
 
 [21 
 
al of the House, and the Chief Clerk of the House be in- 
 structed to present an engrossed copy thereof to his sons. 
 
 A. W. Buchanan, 
 W. K. Barker, 
 Raymond C. I^angan, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan moved the adoption of the 
 report of the committee. 
 
 Adopted unanimously by rising- vote. 
 
 The following- speeches by Buchanan of 
 Wapello, Barker of Howard, Langan of 
 Clinton, on the death of Rev. Mr. Brown, were 
 ordered printed in the Journal on motion of 
 Warren of Marion. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker — It is not the intention to take the time of 
 this House in a long- eulogy of the deceased. His life of 
 usefulness to the state should not be passed without some 
 little comment. 
 
 Charles E. Brown left his home in New York in 1842. 
 He came to the territory of Iowa as a pioneer missionary. 
 He was a man of excellent judgment, strong character, 
 and of a progressive nature, and could have attained a 
 high place in the commercial world, but preferred rather 
 to devote his life to the betterment of his fellow men. He 
 gained no great wealth, but was able to give his sons an 
 education that has given to the state men eminent in the 
 railroad and commercial world. 
 
 It was not my privilege to know the deceased personally; 
 coming to our city at the advanced age of over four score 
 years he made but few acquaintances, but those who knew 
 him well, held him in high esteem. 
 
 Being possessed of his full mental faculties he saw the 
 approaching end and was full of the faith, and died as he 
 
had lived, belicvinfi;- if a man die he shall live aj,'-ain. 
 Mr. Speaker, I move the rules be suspended and this 
 resolution be adopted by a rising- vote. 
 
 Mr. Barker said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker— It is for us to pause a moment in our leg- 
 islative duties that our thoughts may revert to the early 
 pioneers of our state who have passed the way of all mor- 
 tality—that we may pay our tributes of respect to their 
 memory, their virtues, and their worth. 
 
 The life of the subject of these memorial resolutions was 
 measured by more than four score and eight years and 
 about half that long and useful life was passed in Howard 
 county. 
 
 It therefore seems proper that I, as the representative of 
 that county in this general assembly, should add my con- 
 tribution to his worth as a man and as a citizen of our 
 county and state. 
 
 Charles E. Brown was born in Oneida county, N. Y., 
 February 23, 1813, and died in Ottumwa, July 23, 1901. 
 
 He studied for the ministry and was a graduate of Mad- 
 ison university. New York. He was married in 1838 to 
 Miss Frances Lyon, who was his companion for nearly 
 fifty years in his journey upon earth. Three sons survive 
 him, two of them being worthy citizens of Wapello county, 
 Iowa, and the third has gained a national reputation in 
 railroad circles by rising from the humble position of 
 brakeman to that of general manager of the Chicago, 
 Burlington & Quincy railroad, and then vice-president of 
 the L^ake Shore & Michigan Southern railway, and is at 
 this time vice-president of the New York Central. 
 
 Soon after leaving college, the subject of these resolu- 
 tions concluded to devote his life to the service of his 
 fellowman as a missionary. Leaving his home of compar- 
 ative comfort in New York, he came west in 1842 
 and settled in the territory of Iowa about two miles from 
 Maquoketa, in Jackson county, and for the greater part of 
 the next twelve years he devoted his time to his work 
 among the early settlers, from Davenport northward to 
 
Minnesota, facings the storms of winter among- the pioneers 
 with that tireless energy and zeal which was characteristic 
 of him in any cause he espoused. 
 
 At or about the organization of Howard county, he set- 
 tled there and was elected its first county superintendent 
 of schools. 
 
 He was also an active and an honored member of the 
 Seventeenth General Assembly, serving acceptably in that 
 body as representative of Howard county. 
 
 Throug-hout his life, whether in the cabin or more pre- 
 tentious dwelling-, he was always the same social, de- 
 vout Christian gentleman, practicing in his daily walk 
 those precepts he sought to inculcate in others. He was 
 intensely lo3'al and patiiotic and when his conclusions 
 were reached upon any subject, they were definite and 
 positive. 
 
 He advocated his religious and political opinions with 
 earnestness, sincerity, and fidelity, and he was never 
 vacilating or uncertain. He had a clear head and a strong 
 mind. He was never known to compromise with what he 
 believed to be a wrong. 
 
 In short, his life was spent in the service of mankind and 
 it was his greatest pleasure to aid in the uplifting of all 
 humanity and for those in affliction he was generous and 
 was ever ready with kindly sympathy and assistance. 
 
 When the infirmities of age were gathering about him, 
 when he realized his time on earth was short, without sick- 
 ness, without pain, and without a murmur, he folded his 
 hands across his breast and lapsed into that dreamless 
 sleep from which there is no awakening upon earth, but he 
 had an abiding faith and trust that, in a better world, he 
 would awaken in the likeness of his Master that he had 
 served so long and faithfully. 
 
 I second the motion of the gentleman from Wapello to 
 adopt the resolutions. 
 
 Mr. Lang-an said : 
 
 Mr. Speaker — A word and I am done. 
 
 I shall not attempt to give a biographical sketch of the 
 
deceased, nor dwell at leii<j;^th upon his private or public 
 life. That has been done by those more intimate with him 
 than I. However, it should be an especial pleasure to every 
 young man to chronicle to the world some characteristics of 
 those who have lived long^ and served the interests of the 
 state well and good. 
 
 The subject of these resolutions, Rev. C. E. Brown, a 
 member of the Seventeenth General Assembly of Iowa, 
 settled in Jackson county, adjoining- my home county on 
 the north, some sixty years ago. In the wildnerness of 
 that county, with but the meager compensation of one hun- 
 dred dollars per year, he served the scattered population as 
 a missionary, administering to them the consolation of his 
 sacred calling. Coming from New York an educated 
 young man, possessing qualifications which would have 
 entitled him to recognition amid the environments of his 
 own state, he demonstrated his earnest and sacrificing 
 nature. The duties of his vocation were ever pleasant. 
 His labors for religion and state were ceaseless. While he 
 expounded the truths of the gospel from the rudely de- 
 vised and primitively constructed pulpit, he exemplified 
 good citizenship by his daily life. His unselfish spirit pre- 
 vailed through life. Death only could release him from his 
 cbosen work A few lines from his home paper tells the 
 reward of his beautiful life. 
 
 ''Death came in his eighty-ninth year, July 23, 1901, at 
 Ottumwa, Iowa, from a gradual failing of his vital powers, 
 and the end was peaceful and painless." 
 
 What more in this world can we ask for than a happy 
 death at the completion of life's labors ? 
 
 Thus ended a man who made the world better for having 
 lived, better for having played a part on the stage of life. 
 Thus ended a pioneer, a type of man which from- 
 natural and apparent reasons, is rapidly passing away 
 Each general assembly records on its journal the names of 
 former members who are called to "the undiscovered 
 country, from whose bourne no traveler returns," 
 
 Too much cannot be said of the man who braved the 
 vicissitudes which beset the path of the pioneer. No inco- 
 
miutii expresses or contemplates the suffering endured 
 by him. The proud State of Iowa stands as a monument to 
 his labors. His work is a matter of history. Hardly had 
 the hand of the pioneer father felled the oak of the forests 
 and placed it as a log- of the sheltering- cabin till duty's 
 cause called a son to service on the battle field. Some re- 
 turned to enjoy the labor of the past, others sleep beneath 
 the g-round they consecrated with their lives. 
 
 We can never fully estimate the debt of gratitude we 
 owe the pioneer. Only the highest type of the unselfish 
 man could have faced the task. His work had the force of 
 the mythical wand of magic and transformed the once im- 
 penetrable forests and prairies of Iowa to fields teeming in 
 wealth. A word of consideration is, at the best, but mea- 
 ger recognition of service tendered the state when there 
 was a scarcity of learning but a broad field of conquest. 
 That service made possible the bright galaxy of Iowa 
 
 statesmen now at Washington. It made possible a Wilson, 
 
 a Shaw, a DoUiver, and an Allison. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, let the name of him who has passed away 
 be cherished by the members of this assembly; let the his- 
 tory of his life be preserved as the reward of one who nur- 
 tured society in its infancy with the sustaining and sooth- 
 ing influence of a guardian during the wild and tumultuous 
 period of pioneer days. 
 
 c^^^,^-7 x — ^,^3^-3^ 
 
0- 
 
 LEST WE FORGET 
 
 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 REV. CHARLES E. BROWN. 
 
 Delivered at Calvary Baptist Church, 
 
 DAVENPORT. IOWA. 
 
 October 6. 1901. 
 
 J. W. WEDDELL, D. D. 
 
 Pastor of the Church. 
 
 O ■ Q 
 
REV. CHARLES E. BROWN. 
 Feb. 20, 1813— July 23, 1901 
 
 "Servant of God, well done! 
 
 Rest from th)^ loved employ; 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 
 Enter thy Master's joy. 
 
 The pains of death are past, 
 
 Labor and sorrow cease. 
 And life's long- warfare closed at last. 
 
 His soul is found in peace. 
 
 Soldier of Christ, well done! 
 
 Praise be thy new employ; 
 And while eternal ages run, 
 
 Rest in thy Saviour's joy." 
 
LEST WE P0R(;ET. 
 
 ''Beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee 
 forth. " Ueut. 6: 12. 
 
 "Lest we forget," "lest we forget." O how easily we 
 lose sight, in better times, of the days of privation and 
 toil! "Beware." Elsewhere Moses says, (8: 2) "And thou 
 shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led 
 thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee 
 and to prove thee." 
 
 It seems strange that memory should need exhortation 
 and command, or that the church of God should require 
 such oft reminder of the past, but, alas, we are prone to 
 forget, in prosperous days, the way by which we have been 
 led in the initial times of trial and testing. Families over- 
 look their old environments, sons and daughters happy in 
 the possession of rich estates and the luxuries of wealth, 
 forget the toil of father and mother or of grandfather and 
 grandmother at the forge, or the bench, or behind the 
 plow, bending to the laborious accumulation of the things 
 their children now enjoy. 
 
 In the same way, Moses, casting his eye forward, wise 
 statesman that he was, as well as prophet, foresaw the 
 time when the children of Israel, blest in the enjoyment 
 of things for which they had labored not, would forg-et the 
 hardships endured by the fathers in an early day and the 
 God that brought them out; therefore he urged them to 
 recall these things often and so keep in a humble and 
 grateful and reverent frame of mind toward the Giver of 
 every good and perfect gift. 
 
 We are not free from a like peril. Ours is a wonderful 
 heritage in this Iowa land. Prosperity beyond the com- 
 
 [10] 
 
11 
 
 mon lot of man has crowned the efforts that have been put 
 forth, and we find ourselves in the midst of richly pro- 
 ductive conditions. These have come to us, under God's 
 kind hand, as a legacy from the past. "Other men labored 
 and ye are entered into their labors;" or the fruits of their 
 labors. "Great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, 
 and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not, 
 and wells which thou diggedst not, and vine3'ardi and 
 olive trees which thou plantedst not." 
 
 Now, we rejoice in this blessed inheritance; but there is 
 danger here. Let us listen to the prudent admonition of 
 Moses, the man of God, spoken for people in just such 
 prosperous surroundings as belong to us today in this fair 
 state of ours: "When thou shalt have eaten and be full, 
 then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee 
 forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." 
 The lesson is plain. In days of affluence and ease remem- 
 ber the beginning days, when God's succoring hand was 
 especially manifest, lest we forget God and along with 
 God, the sources of all present, past and future good. 
 
 The recent sixtieth annual session of the Davenport Bap- 
 tist Association was sadly accentuated by the death of the 
 venerable and beloved father in the faith. Rev. Charles E. 
 Brown, one of the first preachers of the gospel in this 
 region. We are hereby led to a recall of the early incidents 
 and events that marked the beginning days of our Baptist 
 intetests in this state. 
 
 Our fathers in the faith were aggressive, and we began 
 Baptist history right along with the records of the organ- 
 ization of the territory. From earliest times this country 
 lying west of the Mississippi and along the forty-first and 
 forty-second parallels of latitude was recognized as a 
 choice spot for homes and farms and cities. A veritable 
 garden of the Lord, it seemed to the earliest comers, and 
 the tales they tell of its park-like appearance as their eyes 
 first rested upon it are interesting to hear and we catch a 
 bit of that first enthusiasm as we listen. 
 
 But the enthusiasm and vim of these first settlers, seek- 
 ing lands and houses and earthly things, was watched by 
 
12 
 
 the hif^h purpose of tlie early preachers of i\\p f^ospel. 
 Witness the earnestness of soul and enerf;^y of hand and 
 foot, which such men as those devoted seekers of souls and 
 spiritual thing^s, the Iowa Rand of Andover students, ex- 
 emplified, as they left the snug- ensconcements of the east 
 and plung-ed into these new and untried but not unpromis- 
 ing surroundings. And so our Baptist fathers were here 
 ere the Redman had disappeared or the buffalo had ceased 
 to tramp across our fertile western hills and prairies. 
 Chapels arose with saw mills, and churches with factories, 
 and preceding- these, the land prospector and the scout of 
 civilization shared the rude but kindly hospitality of the 
 plains with the hardy and hopeful pioneer preacher and 
 missionary. In this, these noble men were but proving- 
 their calling- of the Ivord and carrying out that good spirit 
 of the first evangels of the gospel, who in answer to the 
 Macedonian cry that kept ever leading farther out and on, 
 were found "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
 perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in 
 perils by the heathen (i. e. other countrymen), in perils in 
 the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
 perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, 
 in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
 in cold and nakedness." Of such good witness and testi- 
 mony Paul gives record in II Cor. 11: 26-27. The early 
 workers in the planting of churches and Sunday schools of 
 our faith and order in Iowa, had their share of these divine 
 credentials. 
 
 We are familiar with the fact that the first church to be 
 organized in Iowa was that at Danville, in 1834, under 
 Elder John Logan, a name since honored in the nation, 
 who came across from the Illinois interior to help form the 
 initial Baptist nucleus. That was down Burlingtonwards 
 at old Long Creek, as then called. In 1839 the Home Mis- 
 sion Society commissioned Calvin Greenleaf to come over 
 from Griggsville, Illinois, and organize the growing Bap- 
 tist band at Davenport into a church society. Rev. Titus 
 Gillett of Rock Island, completing the organization. About 
 the same time Hezekiah Johnson, the father of Dr. Frank- 
 
13 
 
 lin Johnson, of the University of Chicago, who very appro- 
 priately, a few years since, preached the sixtieth anniver- 
 sary sermon at Davenport, and Ezra Fisher, who is known 
 as the first pastor, at Davenport, appear upon the records. 
 These two started from the latter place a little later on the 
 venturesome and heroic overland journey to Oregon. The 
 hopeful and self-sacrificing spirit of those days may be 
 judged from the further fact that when the first state or 
 rather territorial convention was held in 1842 at Iowa City, 
 M. W. Rudd, late of Washington, Iowa, walked seventy-five 
 miles to attend the meeting, helped along a little by hold- 
 ing on to the pommel of another brother's saddle. 
 
 Rev. S. H. Mitchell in his Historical Sketch of Iowa Bap- 
 tists, to which thesaurus of biographic material we are not 
 a little indebted, also instances the fact that at the time 
 when the first meeting of the Davenport association was 
 held at Davenport in 1842, a missionary and his wife trav- 
 eled fort}^ miles to attend the meeting, startling even the 
 primitive settlement of Davenport as he drove in "on a one 
 horse cart, constructed out of the hind wheels and axle of 
 an old lumber wagon, with a couple of old rails for thills 
 and a bundle of oats for a cushion " 
 
 It was at this meeting and that of the territorial conven- 
 tion a month or two previous that Rev, Charles E. Brown's 
 name first appears, though he had been preaching and vis- 
 iting for some months at Maquoketa and in the vicinity. 
 He took a prominent part in the organization of the 
 churches into associational form. At this time there were 
 seven within range. Rock Island being at first included. 
 It was stated by Brother Brown as a curious occasion for 
 the associational date that it was so fixed as to avoid the 
 sickly season— when is that? — and also to bring the meet- 
 ings at a time when fruits, vegetables and chickens would 
 be abundant. The association still follows in a way this 
 wholesome precedent. 
 
 The brother who came to this first association in the 
 modest make-shift of a conveyance, above referred to, 
 caring more, as was right, for the high requirements of the 
 occasion than for its conveniences or discomforts, was none 
 
14 
 
 other, as his own "l*orsoiial Keniitiisceiices"' tell, than 
 Father Brown. He had lately settled as missionary pastor 
 at the Forks of Maquoketa, and felt that as a faithful stew- 
 ard he must not miss the meeting-. But how should he and 
 his wife attend, the onlj' vehicle within reach having- left 
 the settlement? Here is his own characteristic account of 
 the affair: "I secured the loan of the hind wheels and 
 axletree of a Hoosier lumber wagon, went to the fence and 
 got poles suitable for thills, and whit a board on wooden 
 pegs, we were soon ready for the forty mile trip.'' He 
 adds somewhat facetiously, in view of the wild sensations 
 his arrival made, "Although road carts were not as popular 
 and common then as now, we felt not the slightest embar- 
 rassment in driving up in front of the residence of Dr. 
 Witherwax." The meetings, he says, were held in a small 
 frame building on Front street, the Baptist church having 
 been planted here three years before, in Septeinber, 1839. 
 A brick meeting-house, however, was erected shortly after 
 the association, at the southeast corner of Fourth and 
 Brady streets. 
 
 The first meeting of the Davenport association, with all 
 its limitations, is said by Brother Brown, to have been one 
 of sweet and precious interest, and after singing the old- 
 time hymn, 
 
 ''From Whence doth this Union Arisef' 
 
 "the brethren reluctantly parted to their homes and to 
 their work." These, he continues, "were not days of rail- 
 road coaches and cushioned carriages, but emigrant trails, 
 unbridged rivers, creeks and sloughs, old lumber wagons, 
 prairie schooners and old dilapidated saddles. But precious 
 enjo3'ment in this pioneer missionary life and work. How 
 sweet the memory still." Unbridged rivers, however, and 
 other hindrances did not deter such resolute spirits as 
 these. Once cut off by a washout in the prairie, when on 
 his way with Mrs. Brown to the meeting of the first terri- 
 torial convention at Iowa City, with a sharp cut of the 
 whip he leaped his horse, wagon and all, across the chasm, 
 gathering together his scattered effects as best he could, 
 
15 
 
 on the other side of the gully; and at another time when 
 arrested by a swollen stream, on the way to Mt. Pleasant 
 (to the second territorial convention), he cut a grape-vine, 
 swam the stream and pulled over the wagon piece meal, 
 putting it together again on the farther bank. In this con- 
 nection we may mention the humble manner in which 
 Father Brown and his little family started out on the over- 
 land journey from Chicago. They had already been a 
 score of days coming by canal boat and steamer from the 
 interior of York state. 
 
 Here was the manner of the home-stretch, heroic and 
 handsome, in its way: 
 
 "On Monday we hired a man from Rockford who had 
 been in with a load, to take us and oar goods to Savanna, 
 on the Mississippi river. It was a lumber wagon. After 
 loading the boxes, the rocking chair, which we had brought 
 from our New York home, was fastened on top of one of 
 the boxes; a little chair from a furniture store was fastened 
 to the side of the rocker. My good wife cheerfully mounted 
 and took her seat in the rocking chair and the youngest 
 child in her lap and the other one by her side, remarking, 
 'Now this is first rate.' I took a seat on a box beside the 
 driver with our feet resting on the whiffletrees, ready for a 
 trip of two hundred miles to our future home in the state 
 of Iowa." So they made their advent on the scene of their 
 labors. 
 
 That was what it cost in endurance and hard labor, to 
 start things agoing religiously in these parts. Some idea 
 of the compensations of the pioneers may be learned from 
 the records of that first winter following the association, 
 spent by Mr. and Mrs. Brown, because of the severity of 
 the weather, in Davenport. "For weeks," he says, "in the 
 dead of winter we had revival meetings in the court house 
 at Rock Island, and by reason of the solid ice bridge on the 
 Mississippi river the Davenport people could attend and 
 take part in the meetings over the water, and did and 
 shared largely in the results of the good work. Over forty 
 were received by baptism into the two churches.'' Daven- 
 port alone received eighteen by baptism and fifteen by 
 letter. 
 
16 
 
 Following this meeting-, lOlder Brown went up the river 
 and org-anized the churches at Camanche and Port Byron, 
 LeClaire having been in existence since the spring of 1839. 
 
 In those days Davenport Association bulked larger than 
 it does today. It covered all the territory of Northern 
 Iowa and reached over into Minnesota. Iowa City in its 
 further bounds, the then capital of the state, was North 
 America's fartherest western mission point. There was 
 no mission station between it and the coast. This was true 
 as late as 1845. There were indeed waste places in Iowa in 
 those da3's. and wide distances intervened. One worthy 
 brother, asked to visit a certain field, wrote, "I have no way 
 to go, but to walk or ride an ox.'' And yet the brethren of 
 the state board by dint of much sacrifice, managed to meet 
 and consult and devise in the interest of the churches. We 
 shall never know the hardships necessitated or the pains 
 and perils passed through. State Missionary Smith one 
 time in the early days started out on horseback to attend 
 the Boat's meeting at Dubuque. It was freezing cold and 
 growing colder. The first day he managed to get from 
 Iowa City to Anamosa, through the bitter wind. The next 
 morning, in spite of the protestations of his friends, frail 
 man that he was physically, he set out in the teeth of a 
 blizzard, across what was called Bowen's Prairie, reaching 
 at night-fall a little cabin at what is now Monticello, half 
 frozen, but still pressing on. The next day he was off 
 again for Cascade, stumbling along through the drifting 
 snow, and the next day, faint but pursuing, he reached 
 his coveted destination at Dubuque, and there met the 
 brethren and transacted the work of the lyord. 
 
 Ah, those were days of heroism, and we do well to honor 
 the faith and fortitude of such men in laying the founda- 
 tions of our work in the state. There was rich promise in 
 the soil and the stimulus of a contagious spirit of hope and 
 expectation in the air, but morally and religiously it was a 
 time that tried men's heaits. Those of us who were ac- 
 customed to hear Elder Brown on his oft repeated visits to 
 the scene of his former labors — one of the amenities of his 
 later days, for which he and we are indebted to his son, 
 
17 
 
 Superintendent Brown, formerly General Manager of the 
 C. B. &Q., now Vice-President of the Ivake Shore Railroad, 
 who also, we may say, is the thoughtful publisher of this 
 booklet — those of us, who heard his terse and direct re- 
 minders of former days, will not soon forget one incident 
 he used to relate with zest. We can see him now as he 
 told it to us, half leaning on his cane, the old Rock Island 
 court house cane (cut from its timbers) which he thought 
 so much of. 
 
 "When we came," he used to say, "to the Forks of the 
 Maquoketa, wife and I, it was new ground, and we were far 
 from our old friends and among strangers. We found very 
 few at first that cared for the things of Christ, and a thick 
 mist had settled down upon everything, far and near, that 
 made the burden of our homesickness all the more heavy. 
 But out on my rounds, looking for the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel, the wind came up, the sun suddenly broke 
 through the clouds and with it came a sense of God's help 
 and a new lifting of the heart. I saw the broad fields and 
 forests and the beautiful landscape, dotted with new homes, 
 as I had not seen it before, and I thanked God that he had 
 led me to cast my lot with this people to lead their 
 thoughts to heavenly things; and what was best of all, as 
 I rode up on my horse toward the log hut where we were 
 stopping, I saw my dear wife coming out to see me, with a 
 new light in her eye, and as she met me she said, 'Charles, 
 we have come to Iowa to do good, and will stay and trust 
 in the Lord'.' It was all different after that, and the work 
 went right on.'' 
 
 It was a good work in those days of the forties and fifties. 
 There was a freedom and sprightliness in the atmosphere, 
 a cheery temper to the soul, and though money was not 
 plentiful, men gave cordially and promptly to all good 
 objects, and sometimes wuth a liberality that shames the 
 tame generosity of these more prosperous days. 
 
 Dr. Dexter P. Smith, to whom reference has already 
 
 been made, at one time missionary (from 1845 to 1851) of 
 
 the Home Mission Society at Iowa City, and afterwards 
 
 (from 1851 to 1859) in the employ of the American Sunday 
 
 I 
 
18 
 
 School Union, as general missionary for Iowa, tells this 
 unique incident of those times. "February 17, 1856, I was 
 in Davenport. In the morning 1 preached in the Congrega- 
 tional church and received a collection of $60.25. In the 
 evening I addressed a union meeting at the Baptist church. 
 Cash collection, Sl()3.()0. Slips of paper were circulated 
 for subscriptions. Upon one of these small slips was the 
 following subscription: 'Martin Reisorf, one thousand dol- 
 lars (SI, 000), payable at Cook & Sargent's Bank, Davenport, 
 October 2, 1856.' As no one of the friends knew any one 
 in Davenport by the name of Martin Reisorf, the subscrip- 
 tion was valued at a discount of about one hundred per 
 cent. The next morning, with a friend, I inquired at 
 Cook cS: Sargent's Bank, but the officials knew of no such 
 person, which strengthened the belief that it was a mere 
 hoax, and that we should hear no more of it. But my own 
 mind was strongly impressed that God had touched the 
 heart of some one, and disposed him to do a noble thing 
 for the good cause. Just before the subscription matured, 
 upon the streets of Davenport, a stranger met the Rev. E. 
 M. Miles, pastor of the Baptist church, and inquired, 'Do 
 you recollect that a subscription of $1,000 for the Sunday 
 School work was given in response to Mr. Smiih^s recent 
 lecture and appeal?' 'I recollect it ver}^ well,' said Mr. 
 Miles, and the stranger continued: 'Can you convey the 
 funds to Mr. Smith without trouble?' Mr. Miles assured 
 him that it could be done without the least trouble. *Then,' 
 said the unknown stranger, 'I will pa)^ the amount, to you 
 instead of depositing it at the bank,' and he handed him a 
 purse of gold containing a thousand dollars in fifty pieces 
 of twenty dollars each. In the excitement of the moment 
 the stranger passed from sight, and from that day search 
 was made in vain for the generous donor." 
 
 The Iowa Board of State Missions in connection with the 
 State Convention was organized in 1855. Rev. Elihu Gunn, 
 the corresponding secretary, thus describes the field as it 
 was then. "The state of Iowa is at present filling up by 
 an immigration altogether unexampled in the history of 
 our country. It is computed by those best qualified to 
 
19 
 
 judg-e that not less than two hundred thousand people have 
 found homes within the ample borders of our state within 
 the last two years." "The great thoroughfares of travel 
 along the line of the lakes uniting the Atlantic cities with 
 the Mississippi river, have been choked with emigrants 
 from all the eastern and middle states." "Kvery point of 
 transit across the Mississippi has been crowded with the 
 canvas-covered wagons of the hardy pioneers from other 
 western states." "Whole townships and counties have 
 been taken up and settled as by magic. Tracts of country, 
 scores and even hundreds of miles in extent, wliere but two 
 years ago the wild Indians disputed the possession, only 
 with the prairie wolf and the elk, are now dotted all over 
 with the rude cabins of the settlers." 
 
 Into such a scene of activit3^ our missionary fathers en- 
 tered with a vim and vigor for eternal interests commen- 
 surate with the zeal and zest for perishing things, that 
 was all about them. It is to be noted however, that Rev. 
 I M. Seay, the first missionary of the society, received but 
 $75.00 for his first year's work. 
 
 But despise not the day of small things. With the ap- 
 pointment of Rev. J. Y. Aitchison to the secretaryship in 
 the following 3'ear, practical methods were put into opera- 
 tion and $2,087 20 was raised and expended in direct mis- 
 sionary work throughout the state. It is with no compla- 
 cency that we compare this courageous and hopeful doing 
 with our statistics of the past year. We are giving at 
 present but S8,000 in round numbers and this with a state 
 population many times as large as in 1855, and a Baptist 
 constituency at the present time of 40,000 or more. This 
 ill proportion in contributions is not because of lessened 
 requirement; the need is greater than ever before. Multi- 
 tudes of growing- cities and communities are without Bap- 
 tist preaching, and many of them without evang-elical ser- 
 vices of any kind. Several evangelists might profitably be 
 employed in each of the four sections of the state, but the 
 money is lacking, and the fields wait in vain. 
 
 Neither is this lack of adequate funds because of a dearth 
 of resources in the state. We are a rich and prosperous 
 
20 
 
 coniinonwealtli Statistics show that Iowa stands well to 
 the front, if not altog-ether foremost, in the earning^s and 
 saving-s of its populace, and the recent cry of drouth and 
 calamity has been proven wholly gratuitous and ungra- 
 cious, in view of the large returns that are ours in these 
 later months from the fertile fields and rich orchards, not 
 to speak of the thrifty markets of the state. The lines 
 have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we are affluent 
 and well-to-do as compared with our brethren of some 
 other states and territories. Instead of basely and falselj' 
 repining over fancied or feigned poverty, we should rejoice 
 in present blessing-s and respond this year to mission ap- 
 peal with a thank offering that should bear some due re- 
 lation to the kind gifts that have been bountifully show- 
 ered upon us from the skies. "Freel3' ye have received, 
 freely give." So may we respect the fathers and prove 
 that their spirit of courage and self-sacrifice has not per- 
 ished from the earth. 
 
 Looking back at the consecrated labors of these worthies, 
 what shall we say? It is piety that we lack, my brethren, 
 down-rig-ht piety, and devotion to the higher interests of 
 the soul. Our very prosperity has drawn our thoughts 
 away from spiritual things and made us, for the most part, 
 to turn our accumulations straight back into other chan- 
 nels of money-getting instead of investing, as once we 
 were prompt to do, in the enterprise of soul winning and 
 the interests of the kingdom. Let us beware lest God send 
 us judgment of genuine famine and pestilence in the land 
 to remind us of our dependence upon Him and to teach us 
 to be humble and thankful toward Him from whom all 
 blessings flow. 
 
 In conclusion, if we would keep in mind the stirring- 
 events of the past and honor the noble veterans of the 
 cross, who labored and wrought in the days of small 
 things — 
 
 We shall maintain the cause to which they gave so un- 
 grudging-ly in toil and sacrifice— 
 
 We shall endeavor in our day and generation with due 
 
21 
 
 gifts and devotion to finish the work which they began 
 and passed on to us — 
 
 We shall seek, in a like humble and heroic spirit, in the 
 times that now are, to love and serve the Christ to whom 
 they gave in lavish unstintedness, life and loyalty. So 
 shall we remember the fathers that are gone and rightly 
 aid the generations yet to come. 
 
 Syracuse, New York, 
 February 16, 1894. 
 Dear Brother Charles: 
 
 I duly received your Book of Personal Reminiscences, 
 and I most cordially thank you for it. I read it mostly 
 through the first day I received it, and I am reading now 
 again. It interests me intensely I'll assure you and as I 
 read it I could not help thinking that although we are 
 brothers yet how little I knew of your life. Your Mission- 
 ary years in Iowa and their incidents as related by you, I 
 knew nothing of and of course the book is at once a novel 
 and a revelation to me. 
 
 And then, it is a most loving and affectionate tribute to 
 the memory of sister Frances, concerning whom, from my 
 earliest childhood to the day of her death, I heard only 
 words of special endearment from all the members of the 
 family. 
 
 She occupied a most conspicuous place in the tender re- 
 gard of Father and Mother and her memory to me is most 
 sweet and precious. I am glad to know that you are so 
 well and contented, and what a comfort it must be to you 
 to think that you have lived a life of Christian iisefullness 
 and that your sons are upright, worthy and noble men. 
 I wish I had such comforts now to brighten the shady side 
 of life. I wish I could see you and the family, but can't 
 just yet. 
 
 I am most lovingly your brother, 
 
 WlIvBUR. 
 THE END 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 0035520825 
 
 958.5 
 B81 
 
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 CO CO 
 O^ CD 
 
 BRITTLE DO NOT 
 PHOTOCOPY 
 
 Br-.. 
 JUL 8 1958